Washington: The online petition to US President urging to raise the issues of "labeling Sikhs as Hindus under Article 25(b)" and "Sikh Genocide in November 1984" with Prime Minster Narendra Modi has gathered over 1.10 lakh signatures thus qualifying for eliciting a response from the White House as the White House Portal states that to elicit a response, an online petition is required to obtain 100,000 signatures in 30 days. The petition was supported even by Akal Takht Jathedar who urged Sikhs to sign it after which it gathered momentum through online and offline mediums.

Launched on December 1 by New York-based 'Sikh for Justice', the online petition "urges Obama to question 'Why Indian constitution labels 'Sikhs' as Hindus?' and raise the issues of 'Sikh Genocide' and 'Sikhs' Right to Self-determination". Till Friday, the online petition on the White House website had attracted more than 114,000 signatures. Any online petition with more than 100,000 signatures in less than a month normally attracts a response from the White House. Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US, Sikh for Justice had launched a similar on-line petition. But after "standard fraud check", the White House removed more than 85,000 signatures from the petition that asked Obama to cancel his planned meeting with Modi. US President Barrack Obama will be the first US President to attend India's Republic Day function as Chief Guest on January 26, 2015.