SGPC, TV channel told to clarify stand

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 13

The Akal Takht secretariat has sent a communication to the SGPC and a private TV news channel to clarify their stance within a fortnight over the “exclusive” rights over the telecast of Gurbani and Hukumnama pronounced daily from the Golden Temple.

The issue of granting rights to a particular TV channel by the SGPC was raised in the Vidhan Sabha, which had unanimously passed a resolution urging the SGPC to allow all TV and radio channels to air Gurbani from the Golden Temple.

But the matter again cropped up when the TV channel blocked the morning “Hukumnama” pronounced daily from the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple on Facebook pages of some Sikh web channels.

The TV channel, which claimed to have its exclusive rights, had sent notices to the web channels and reportedly got the content blocked through Facebook.

Sikh Siyasat editor Paramjeet Singh has approached the SGPC against the “discrimination” over telecast rights. He said the TV channel blocked the content, terming it to be its “intellectual right”.

“We pick the audio of ‘Hukumnama’ from the SGPC website on different portals which are already put in the public domain. Our designers add visual of the Golden Temple to it and broadcast it further. Now, it has been blocked. We have communicated to Facebook to unblock the content. Facebook said it would reply by January 16,” he said.

The SGPC, which is silent on the matter, has invited criticism for allegedly granting the telecast rights of “sarb sanjhi Gurbani” to a particular channel. Former Jathedar of Takht Damdama Sahib Giani Kewal Singh said the Gurbani and katha kirtan could never be the personal property of anyone. “Anyone who has faith in Sikhism has the right to propagate it further. Every mode of media should be encouraged to do it by observing the rehat maryada,” he said.

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