Chandigarh: Declaring him a tankhaiya (religious sinner), the Akal Takht Wednesday ordered Punjab education minister Harjot Singh Bains to get approach roads to some prominent gurdwaras cleaned and repaired, and to clean shoes at Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib in New Delhi for two days to atone for his “mistake”. Bains was handed the punishment for turning a “solemn and spiritual” event to commemorate 350 years since the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth guru of the Sikhs, into a “song and dance”.
Giani Kuldeep Singh Gadgaj, jathedar of Akal Takht, highest temporal body of the Sikhs, along with representatives of the four other takhts (seats of power) questioned the minister from the ramparts of the Akal Takht before declaring him guilty of ‘religious misconduct’.
Bains had been summoned by the Akal Takht last week over a video of an event organised in Srinagar by the Punjab government’s department of languages—which falls under Bains—to commemorate 350 years since the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur. In a video of the event, the audience is seen dancing to folk songs.
Standing under the Akal Takht building with a bowed head and folded hands, Bains accepted his “mistake” before the jathedars, admitting he was present at the function and did not stop the singer from performing folk songs.
The minister has been handed a series of ‘religious punishments’ or tankha including walking barefoot to the Gurdwara Guru Ka Mahal in Amritsar where Guru Tegh Bahadur was born. This gurdwara is about 600 metres from the Golden Temple complex.
Bains has also been asked to get the approach road to the gurdwara cleaned and repaired.
Further, the Akal Takht has asked him to atone for his “mistake” by cleaning shoes at Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib in New Delhi for two days. He has also been asked to walk 100 metres barefoot to Gurdwara Kotha Sahib Patshahi Nauvin in Amritsar’s Vallah, and Gurdwara Shri Patshahi Nauvin Sahib in Baba Bakala in Amritsar district. The minister will also have to ensure that approach roads to these gurudwaras are cleaned and repaired.
In August last year, the Akal Takht declared Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Sukhbir Badal a tankhaiya for taking decisions that it said led to “severe depletion of the image of the Sikh community, deterioration of the condition of the Shiromani Akali Dal and damaging Sikh interests”. Badal resigned as SAD president, but was re-elected to the post in April.
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‘Song & dance’ controversy
Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed on the orders of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi on 24 November, 1675. Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib and Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in Delhi were built to mark the place of his execution and cremation. The execution is seen as a most solemn event that changed the course of Sikh history, culminating in creation of the Khalsa in 1699 by Guru Tegh Bahadur’s son and successor, Guru Gobind Singh.
The two-day event that led to the present controversy was organised by the language department of Punjab government, under the aegis of ministry of higher education, in collaboration with J&K government and J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages.
Invited to present religious and “sufi” songs to mark the solemn occasion, Punjabi folk singer Bir Singh instead performed folk numbers to which members of the audience responded by standing up and dancing. The incident sparked outrage in Punjab, with Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) terming it “deeply painful”.
Apart from Bains, director of Punjab government’s language department Jaswant Singh Zafar was also summoned over the controversy. He is yet to appear before the Akal Takht. Jathedar Gadgaj announced Wednesday that Zafar has sought permission to appear before the temporal body next week since he is not in the country at this time.
On his part, Bir Singh issued an unconditional apology last week, claiming “unintentional oversight”. He said he wrote an apology letter to the Akal Takht and also presented himself before the temporal body in the Golden Temple complex last week to seek forgiveness.
The controversy over the event has erupted amid ongoing tensions between Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and the SGPC over who will organise the main events to commemorate 350 years since the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur. Mann announced that the Punjab government will host a series of grand events to mark the occasion, to which SGPC objected, saying it was “solely entitled” to host such events and the Punjab government organising parallel events amounted to interference in religious matters.
In response Mann quipped that the Sikh religion was not “a copyright” of the SGPC.
As part of the punishments announced Wednesday, the five high priests (Singh Sahiban) directed that future government programmes focus on seminars, discussions, and lectures aligned with Sikh values and there should be no violation of Sikh conduct during these programmes. It asserted that the Sikh community is capable of organising gurmat samagams (religious congregations) and nagar kirtans (religious processions) and the government must not organise such events. The Dharam Prachar Committee of SGPC, Sri Amritsar, should be involved in organising such events, it said, adding that governments must support panthic organizations such as SGPC in hosting events at historic Sikh sites.
Additionally, the Punjab government has been instructed to improve roads and facilities around key gurdwaras associated with Guru Tegh Bahadar. The high priests have also suggested to the Punjab government to consider establishing new public welfare institutions in memory of the ninth guru, following the precedent of previous centenaries where hospitals, colleges, and universities were inaugurated, said Jathedar Gadgaj.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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