The Network of Sikh Organisations (NSO) is crying foul again at the BBC. It said that Sikhs were allegedly snubbed during a discussion on a BBC Radio 4 show.

In a press release, NSO said, "On Sunday 5th April, this year, BBC Radio 4's 'Sunday' religious programme carried a lengthy discussion on 'leadership in different religions. The producers invited representatives from different branches of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the Hindu faith and even a 'secularist' to contribute to the debate, but deliberately avoided inviting a Sikh."

The release further claimed that "no attempt was made to contact the NSO the largest grouping of Sikhs in the UK, nor as far as we are aware, any other Sikh organisation. Why?"

The organisation further attacked the public service broadcaster for not carrying any mentions of the important Sikh festival of Vasaikhi being celebrated by Sikhs throughout the world. It said, "The BBC’s own section on religion on the Internet acknowledges Vasaikhi as being 'one of the most important dates in the Sikh calendar'."

Last year, the media monitoring group said it was unhappy with the lack of coverage to the Sikh and Hindu faiths on BBC TV and radio.

A breakdown of programming from the BBC's Religion and Ethics department, revealed that since 2001, the BBC made forty-one faith programmes on Islam, compared with just five on Hinduism and one on Sikhism. This research and subsequent concern within both the Sikh and Hindu communities caused some furore and was widely reported in the press.

Dr. Indarjit Singh, the Director of the Network of Sikh Organisations is extremely concerned by these recent developments.

Asked to comment, he said, "I’m not really sure to what extent this lack of sensitivity to Sikhs is deliberate or simply due to ignorance. In any event, it is extremely serious and the BBC should take urgent steps to ensure fairness to all communities in its religious coverage."

At the time of filing this article, BizAsia.co.uk was awaiting a response from the BBC.

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