A Sikh man captures a mural being unveiled at Jaswant Singh Khalra Park in West Fresno on May 22. The cost of the mural was covered by the James Irvine Foundation as part of an award package for Naindeep Singh for the work he has done with the Jakara Movement.
The Movement has supported Sikh families through the Covid-19 pandemic and addresses their economic, educational and cultural issues. Singh was one of seven Californians given the Irvine Leadership Award, which includes a $250,000 prize.
Sixteen figures in human rights activism from around the world are included in the mural: (from left to right) Russian Natalia Estemirova, Kashmiri Jalil Andrabi, Mexican Benito Juarez, Turkish-Armenian Hrant Dink, Mexican Digna Ochoa, Honduran Berta Cáceres, South African Steven Biko, Punjab Sikh Jaswant Singh Khalra (for whom the park is named), Brazilian Marielle Franco, American Viola Gregg Liuzzo, American Fred Hampton, Hmong Touby Lyfoung, American Harvey Milk, Salvadoran Oscar Romero, Filipino Benigno Aquino, Jr., and Finn Jyri Antero Jaakkola. Photo by Peter Maiden
Please remember that Naindeep Singh is on the Central Unified school board that allowed two parents to tear Malachi Suarez’s poster down at his school last year. They also allowed them on the renaming committee that was created because of Malachi, yet he was excluded. Recently, Malachi’s little brother and several Sikh students have been bullied for supporting Malachi’s proposal to change inappropriate school names and mascots, and the board has been silent and inactive. Singh was silent when Richard Solis took it upon himself to remove Roosevelt, Madison, McKinley, and the pioneers from the list of schools and mascots needing to be changed. He was also silent when Solis proposed an unjust 15 moratorium on changing school names, and he voted against attaching his name to his vote on school name and mascot changes. You can view the June 2 committee meeting on YouTube if you search up Central Unified.