Condemning the recent attack on an elderly Sikh by a teenage British girl, Union Minister Manish Tewari today asked the British government to ensure that the culprit is given exemplary punishment so that the faith of minorities is retained in the system.
"Racial behaviour is completely intolerable," Tewari said, adding that if the British government did not act against the guilty person, a "very negative signal would go out to not just that community but other minorities too."
"The civilisational standards of a country can be measured as how it treats its minorities," he said, while asserting that the guilty must be punished to maintain the confidence of the minorities in the system.
In a statement issued today, Tewari pointed out, it was most "horrendous and abominable scene" to witness when a young girl was attacking a man who was old enough to be her grandfather without any provocation.
"This is too shocking to see that such a horrible and most brutal incident took place in a supposedly such a civilised society," the Congress MP from Ludhiana regretted.
The Minister pointed out, the Sikh community world over is known for great human values and sacrifice and has contributed a lot to the development of those countries where they have settled, and especially a country like Britain, where Sikhs are present in fairly large numbers for over a century.
The 19-year-old British girl has been arrested on the charge of assaulting the 80-year-old Sikh on August 10 after a video of the incident went viral online.
