Chandigarh, January 11- Describing the monopoly of a particular channel to broadcast Gurbani from Sri Darbar Sahib as violation of tenets of Sikhism, the President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee Mr Sunil Jakhar today urged the Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib to summon President of Akali Dal Sukhbir Singh Badal for this brazen violation of Gurmaryada.
In statement issued here today, the President of Punjab Congress said that the incident of prohibiting the sharing of hukamnama from Sri Darbar Sahib via Facebook by a private channel was unfortunate. He said that by doing so the SAD President, who was all in all of the channel, had violated the basic spirit of Sikhism. Mr Jakhar said that it was classic case of conflict in interest by SAD supremo as instead of propagating Sikhism, which was the basic foundation of SGPC now ruled by Badals, Sukhbir Badal was bruising the psyche of Sikhs through his channel.
The President of Punjab Congress said that it was a clear case where Sukhbir was giving preference to personal fiscal gains that too at cost of sentiments of Sikh Community. He said that this was totally unwarranted and undesirable from President of a party which claims it self to be panthic. Mr Jakhar sought the immediate intervention of Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib to break the monopoly of a private channel to ensure that Gurbani could reach to the masses through every medium.
The President of Punjab Congress also dared Sukhbir Singh Badal to make his stand clear to the people whether he fulfills his role as the Panthic party president or serves the business interests of his own channel.
Mr. Jakhar said that the Bani of Guru Granth Sahib is equally honored by all religions and characters adding that it is against Gurmaryada to impose restrictions on the transmission of Gurbani for commercial purposes by a private entity. He said that no one can gain authority over Gurbani, but its access is open to all human being on this planet.
Mr. Jakhar said that it is unfortunate that Shiromani Gurudwara Parbhandak Committee (SGPC), which is under direct control of Sukhbir Singh Badal, had sold out the transmission rights for the negligible amount to the Channel which is owned by SAD President. He said that on one hand Sukhbir Singh Badal talks about protecting the Sikhs in France and other foreign nations but on the other hand there are conspiracies in his own state to make Gurbani a property of a particular channel and all these things happened in the regime of same SGPC whose president was decided by Sukhbir Singh Badal. Mr Jakhar said that it was unfortunate that under the control of the Shiromani Akali Dal SGPC has now turned as a B Team of Badal Akali Dal due to which it is disrespecting Gurbani by giving all rights to the favorite channel of Sukhbir Singh Badal to telecast the Gurbani.
The President of Congress committee said that with this shameful act hypocrisy of Sukhbir Singh Badal has been exposed. Mr Jakhar said that the rights granted to any channel for transmission of Gurbani should be immediately revoked and the restrictions imposed on the sharing of audio or video of holy order (Hukmnama) through Facebook or any other media should also be removed. He said that all channels should be allowed to telecast the Gurbani from Darbar Sahib.
The President of Punjab Congress also appealed to former CM Mr Parkash Singh Badal to come forward to clear the stigma to his family by selling the rights of gurbani transmission to particular channel. He urged him to give personal intervention on the issue to prevent the SGPC doing disrespect of Gurbani.
