We were delighted to celebrate the unveiling of our Director Lord Singh of Wimbledon’s portrait in the River Room in the House of Lords earlier this week. The portrait by Satyabrata Karmakar who is an award-winning artist from Kolkata, will be joining the Parliamentary Art Collection later this week. Lord Singh’s portrait is the first of a turban wearing Sikh to join the Parliamentary Arts Collection, an addition to a collection which includes images of other leading Parliamentarians, Prime Ministers, Speakers of the House of Commons and Lord Chancellors, as well as portraits of monarchs.

We share our Director’s full speech from Monday evening:

‘Thank you, Richard very much for those very kind words. I approached you in response to the Sikh community chasing me again and again for some portrait that a turban wearing Sikh had been recognised. 

I got a friend a little surprised and worried when I told him about tonight’s event. I said that I had been framed, would be publicly unveiled and then hung in a prominent place as an example to others!  I sometimes get carried away by my odd sense of humour.

Let me unveil myself a little. I was appointed in 2011, I made clear I didn’t want to be a token Sikh and would devote myself to providing a Sikh perspective on social justice, gender equality and importantly in today’s world, respect for different beliefs. Our relations with different communities should be one of respect, sadly that is not always so, today. The Sikh Gurus went out of their way to show the importance of that respect.

The Sikh holy book the Guru Granth Sahib contains writings of not only Sikh Gurus, but also Hindu and Muslim saints, because they wanted to emphasise, we share important truths. At the same time the Golden Temple in India has four doors, a door on each of its four sides to symbolise a welcome to anyone from any geographic or spiritual direction. Sikhism stresses that our different faiths are not mutually exclusive as some would have us believe but are like paths up a mountain leading to a greater understanding of life itself. Paths that frequently cross and merge to give us a heightened understanding of common imperatives for political and social justice. 

Since my appointment, and before that in 35 years broadcasting on BBC’s Thought for the Day, I have spoken of important commonalities that unite our one human family. My more than 300 spoken contributions in the Lords, have been generally well received. Lord Tebbit once got up after I had spoken, to say if there is any sort of trouble anywhere, the safest place to be is with a group of Sikhs.

But it’s not always easy to go on about our one human family in today’s fractured world, I recently thought I should wash my mouth out after daring to suggest that Palestinians were also human. But most people are happy with my speaking from a Sikh perspective, and I will continue doing so to the best of my ability.

The portrait before us is not only an honour for myself and my family, but also for the wider Sikh community both here and abroad, who’ve been chasing me non-stop. It’s also an indication of how far the UK has come in recognising the contribution of other communities to the life of this country. I’d like to conclude by giving my thanks to the Lord Speaker, Melissa Hamnett Director Heritage Collections, my good friend Lord Faulkner – Chair of the Lord Speaker’s Advisory Panel, Dr Katy Barrett & Grace Saull and particular thanks to Malika Chanda of daughter.com and her talented artist Satyabrata Karmakar in Kolkata, for their kindness and endless patience in producing the portrait before us.

Finally, my thanks to you all for attending and making this evening so special.’