SGPC DRAGGING ITS FEET FROM LIVE TELECAST OF GURBANI JUST TO CORNER BENEFIT BLUE EYED CHANNEL OF BADALS: CM

Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday slammed the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) for dragging its feet from the live telecast of the sacred Gurbani just to corner benefit to a blue eyed channel of Badals.

Interacting with the media persons here today, the Chief Minister said that rather than working to ensure that ambrosial nectar of the sacred Gurbani reaches every household with free to air and free of cost telecast, the SGPC has made u-turn just to ensure that the telecast rights remains in hands of one single channel. He said that surprisingly instead of working in the larger interest of humanity, the SGPC is acting on the whims and fancies of the Badal family by inordinately delaying the matter of free telecast of gurbani. Bhagwant Mann said that the former Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib had a year ago batted for launching a channel for free to air telecast of Gurbani but the SGPC has been in deep slumber since then.

The Chief Minister said that now also Jathedar sahib in his letter has not named any channel telecast of Gurbani but being ‘more loyal than king’ SGPC has asked the same channel to continue just to appease its masters. He said that it is unfortunate that the personal interests of those at the helm of affairs in SGPC are keeping the sangat bereft of sacred Gurbani. Bhagwant Mann said that the wise people will never forgive these ‘modern day masands’ for this sin against humanity.

The Chief Minister reiterated that if given a chance the state government can perform sewa of making all the arrangements of live and free to air telecast of Gurbani within 24 hours. Citing the example of live feed of most government events, he said that most of the time the arrangement for it is made within an hour. Bhagwant Mann said that this will ensure the free to air telecast of Gurbani on every satellite and web channel that too within seconds thereby immensely benefitting the masses.

The Chief Minister bemoaned the undue delay in approval of the Sikh Gurudwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023 by the Governor. He said that the bill aims at freeing the undue control of a particular family over the rights to telecast sacred Gurbani. Bhagwant Mann said that bill is a simple initiative to ensure that Gurbani reaches every household adding that it stipulates that it will be the duty of the Board (SGPC) to propagate the teachings of the Gurus by making uninterrupted (without any on screen running advertisements/ commercials/ distortion) live feed (Audio or Audio as well as Video) of Holy Gurbani from Sri Harmandir Sahib available free of cost to all media houses, outlets, platforms, channels etc. whoever wishes to broadcast it.

Replying to a query, the Chief Minister quipped that it is ironical that the Governor is not aware that whether a session called by state is legal or illegal. He said that in the past too Captain Government had called two such sessions where the nod of Governor was taken later on. Bhagwant Mann said that the state had called the session after consulting the legal luminaries and in consonance with the constitution of India.