Punjabi University row: 'Intent was noble, sought eco-friendly way to prevent misuse of flawed copies,' says V-C, apologises

A day after the Patiala police registered a case against the top brass of the Punjabi University, including Vice-Chancellor (V-C) Jagdeep Singh, for allegedly "digging pits to bury" error-ridden copies of the revered ‘Mahan Kosh’, he has tendered a written apology explaining that there was no malicious intention behind the disposal.

Besides, the university authorities are also holding path in the university gurdwara expressing remorse and seeking pardon for the mistake.

On Friday, the Patiala police had booked V-C Jagdeep Singh, Dean (Academics) Jaswinder Singh Brar, Registrar Devinder Singh, publication bureau in-charge Harjinderpal Singh Kalra and others under Section 298 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which refers to injuring or defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class. Any such violation carries an imprisonment of two years, or fine, or both.

The letter issued by the V-C, the copy of which is with The Tribune, reads that the method adopted by the Punjabi University to dispose of the erroneous version of 'Mahan Kosh' written by Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha, published about 16 years ago, has hurt the sentiments of few. “I deeply regret this. There was no conspiracy or wrong intention behind whatever happened. It is an unintentional mistake.”

The letter further reads, “It is worth mentioning that the issue of errors in the 'Mahan Kosh' published by Punjabi University in English in 2006, in Punjabi in 2009 and in Hindi in 2013 has been a topic of constant discussion in the past years. The university had stopped the sale of this book in 2019 and recalled it from the sales centres. The current Punjab Government was sincerely considering a solution to this issue. The high-level committee formed by the government was holding continuous meetings and discussions. In the recent meeting of this committee held on August 5, 2025, it was decided that all this collection containing errors should be collected within 15 days…

 “The intention behind doing this was absolutely noble. In the interest of the welfare of the nation, with the foresight to realise that in the future someone could use these copies for resale, it was decided to destroy all these copies as a permanent solution to this issue to avoid any possible unpleasant incident.”

“Punjabi University, after considering various aspects of this issue, decided that these copies should be kept in fresh water in the form of a stream so that the water absorbs all this paper and no part of it gets scattered here and there.”

“For this purpose, two big pits were being dug and fresh water was being filled in them. Doing this was an eco-friendly method with a friendly approach towards the environment because setting fire to these large-sized copies in the number of 15 thousand could have generated smoke on a large scale,” stated the VC.

“Now that the students are protesting, I feel that while carrying out all this action, there has been a mistake/error that the Sikh code of conduct should have been followed for this purpose.

“I deeply regret this mistake committed unintentionally while working under good intentions. As the head of the university, I apologise to the entire community for this. The authority is now committed to carrying out this work in accordance with Sikh etiquette. Now, appropriate action will be taken only after receiving the guidelines of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee,” stated Vice- Chancellor Jagdeep Singh.