Head of the Diplomatic Service, Sir Simon McDonald has extended his apologies for calling one of the most revered Sikh temples in the world a mosque. The Permanent Under-secretary admitted he was “wrong” when he mocked to Amritsar's Golden Temple. The move came as Jeremy Corbyn pledged to launch an independent inquiry into Britain's military role in the Indian army 1984 raid if he became prime minister.
Sir Simon had tweeted a picture from the Queen's birthday celebrations organised by the British deputy high commissioner in Chandigarh. He tweeted, “At QBP in Chandigarh @SinghLions presented @DHCAndrewAyre with picture of HM The Queen at Golden Mosque in Amritsar in 1997, a permanent momento for Deputy High Commissioner's wall @UkinIndia.” After realising his mistake, he tweeted, “I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib.”
Bhai Amrik Singh, chairman of the Sikh Federation said, “This was a major gaffe by a top civil servant and totally unacceptable. It demonstrates a remarkable level of ignorance from someone in his position. In our view, a public apology and admitting the mistake is not enough. What we need is a commitment from the UK Government and senior civil servants to root out such ignorance and discrimination or we will continue to face hate, abuse and threats of violence.”
