PARIS: Faced with expulsion of almost all the Sikh students in Paris, the Sikh community of France has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene urgently in the issue.

Almost all the Sikh students were turned away from the gates of most of the French public schools when they red on Sept. 2 after the summer break. However, the mood in the Sikh community has become defiant and indeed hardened on the issue of their children being allowed to wear turbans or patkas (kind of skull cap) in public schools in the country.

The Sikhs were caught off guard when their children were asked by various schools to either remove their patkas or turbans or leave the school. The school authorities have been citing a new law that bans any religious sign to be worny in public-funded schools.

Sikhs here cite Singh’s assurance on Sept. 1 during a visit to the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the faith, that his government would take all the necessary measures to resolve this problem. Singh was quoted as saying he had sent a special envoy to meet President Jacques Chirac. “I asked him to... impress upon President Chirac the significance of the turban to the Sikh faith.”