Tript questions SGPC on Gurbani telecast

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 8

Punjab’s Rural Development Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa has questioned the decision of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) over giving exclusive telecast rights to a Punjabi channel for the telecast of ‘Gurbani’ from the Golden Temple, Amritsar.

Instead of allowing all television and radio channels to allow the free telecast of ‘Gurbani’, Bajwa, in a letter to Akal Takht Jathedar Gyani Harpreet Singh, said the SGPC was charging a certain amount from the channel to give it the exclusive rights, violating the very principal of Sikh philosophy of free dissemination of knowledge.

Moreover, the SGPC was a missionary organisation set up for the propagation of Sikh religion and not to make money.

The letter has been written in the backdrop of the Vidhan Sabha passing a unanimous resolution requesting the SGPC to permit all television and radio channels to air ‘Gurbani’ straight from the Golden Temple.

“The hard-fought struggle for telecast cannot be restricted to one channel. Anyone interested to telecast ‘Gurbani’ should be free to do so,” he said, urging the Akal Takht Jathedar to prevail upon the SGPC to implement the resolution passed by the Vidhan Sabha in its special session called to commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.