Guru Teg Bahadur's martyrdom day: SGPC to launch events along with SAD today

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) will initiate a month-long series of events to mark the martyrdom day of Guru Teg Bahadur with a one-day international seminar at Khalsa College, Patiala, on Monday.

The SGPC will hold these events in close association with the SAD, the party dominating the apex gurdwara panel.

This comes as the state’s AAP government has planned multiple events to mark the occasion over the next month, a move detested by the gurdwara body.

Reacting to the government initiatives, SGPC general secretary Kulwant Singh Manan said the government should have confined itself to providing funds and building required infrastructure instead of holding religious programmes.

“The SGPC, taksals and other Sikh religious bodies should hold such events to highlight the life of Guru Teg Bahadur,” he said. Manan said they would hold lectures, gatka and turban-tying competitions, religious poetry events besides light-and-sound shows.

The Monday’s event will be attended by SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and other party leaders.

A SAD leader said, “For us, it is not politics but an occasion to tell the world to follow the footsteps of the Guru Sahib.”