Finally breaking the deadlock over the main events to celebrate Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th prakash purb, Punjab Government on Tuesday offered to hold functions at Sultanpur Lodhi on November 11 and 12 under the Akal Takht’s “patronage” with the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee’s (SGPC) “support”.
As the politico-religious slugfest continued over the celebrations, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday spoke to the Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh on phone. Besides, his Cabinet Ministers — Charanjit Singh Channi and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa — met the head priest to convey the State Government’s proposal.
The development comes a day after the Akal Takht Jathedar had once again asked the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) and the Congress-led Punjab Government to end their war of words on the celebrations.
After the meeting, the Akal Takht Jathedar expressed hope that the events would be organised jointly while reiterating that the hat leaders should avoid political rhetoric.
It has been learnt that the Chief Minister has left the decision on the Akal Takht, and it has been decided that the Jathedars of all five Takht would be holding a meeting on October 21 to take the decision regarding the celebrations.
Punjab Cabinet Ministers, after meeting the Jathedar, said that they had, on the Chief Minister’s behalf, urged the Jathedar to direct the SGPC to support the official events and not waste Rs 12-15 crore of the sangat’s money on setting up a separate stage, especially when the State Government had already developed the necessary infrastructure for the key programmes.
“This money could be more usefully employed in ‘dharam prachar’, which is one of the prime objectives of the SGPC,” said the ministers, adding that two separate events from two stages would also confuse the pilgrims.
As per the government’s proposal, no political speeches would be allowed at the main function, during which only the Jathedars of the five Takhts, the Head Granthi of Darbar Sahib, the Prime Minister (or any other senior representative of the Central Government), former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, the Chief Minister and SGPC president would be present on the stage.
The Akal Takht Jathedar said that he would convene a meeting of all the five Jathedars next week to finalise the programme for the main functions, slated to be held on November 11-12 in Sultanpur Lodhi, where millions of devotees are expected to converge to pay their respects to the first Sikh Guru on the historic occasion.
The Ministers told the Jathedar that the State Government felt that, in keeping with the importance of the historic occasion and Guru Nanak’s philosophy of ‘Sanjhi Varta’ (Collective Voice), the Sikh community should stand together for the celebrations.
Capt Amarinder had suggested all Sikhs to bow before the Akal Takht and come together under its aegis for the blessed event. No Sikh should have any problem in celebrating the 550th prakash purb under the Akal Takht, since it is the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, he felt.
Further, the Chief Minister was of the opinion that the sacredness of the occasion demanded that there should be no appearance of division or confrontation among the Sikhs in Punjab for the lakhs of pilgrims coming to attend the events from across the world, according to Channi and Randhawa.
The state government had no issues with the SGPC conducting other related events separately, inside gurdwara premises, the ministers told the Jathedar.