Quoting the very universalism of Gurbani, Punjab Cabinet Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa on Friday personally appealed the Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh to seek his intervention in ending monopoly on the live telecast of Gurbani from the Golden Temple and facilitate the availability of signal to all channels within the framework of the guidelines.
Bajwa, after the meeting, asserted that the Jathedar said that he was looking into the matter.
The state Panchayats and Rural Development Minister, Bajwa led a delegation of the Sikh leaders and based the case on the logic that Gurbani was not a commodity and thus could not be traded as was the case now.
The message of the Gurus articulated in Gurbani must be taken to every corner of the world free rather than making it a business, the delegation stated.
The delegation pointed out that the monopoly rights given by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee for this purpose to a single TV channel PTC, that is owned by the family of Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal, violates the basic tenets and teachings of Gurbani that is for the entire humanity.
“The signal should be made available free of cost to every channel interested in spreading Gurbani after getting the undertaking on observing the laid down norms. The SGPC should make its own arrangements for distribution of the signal,” said the delegation.
Bajwa pointed out that the proposal to set up a channel by the SGPC was more than two decades old but nothing had been done to take the same to the logical conclusion for the obvious reasons.
He referred to the appeal made to the SGPC in this regard through a unanimous resolution adopted by the Punjab Assembly on November 6, 2019. This was followed up by him with the submission made to the Akal Takht Jathedar on November 18, he added.