The Akal Takht Sahib, on Friday held the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) accountable for lapses by its officials which caused over 300 Guru Granth Sahib saroops to go missing.
Akal Takht’s officiating Jathedar, Giani Harpreet Singh, amidst the presence of other High Priests, blamed the the SGPC’s executive body for negligence that led to 328 ‘saroops’ or copies of the Guru Granth Sahib to go missing between 2013 and 2015.
The Guru Granth Sahib, can only be printed and distributed by the SGPC, a 100-year-old organisation that manages historical Sikh shrines across the country.
Admitting callousness, SGPC President Gobind Singh Longowal submitted a public apology. Also SGPC officials, comprising Longowal, did a ‘parikrama’ (circumnavigation) of the Golden Temple while reciting ‘waheguru jaap’.
Under the punishment pronounced from the Akal Takht podium, the SGPC executive body was barred from participating in religious or public programmes till October 17.
They can however attend the annual budget session scheduled for September 28.
Also, the SGPC executive members were directed to sweep the street leading to the holiest of Sikh shrines, Harmandir Sahib, from Gurdwara Saragarhi Niwas daily for three days.
SGPC OFFICE-BEARERS IN 2016 REMOVED FROM POSTS FOR YEAR
Taking note of the SGPC task force’s act of using force against agitating Sikh activists to disperse them and tossing the turban of a nihang, the jathedar termed the incident a “sacrilege of the turban” and summoned the employees involved.
Giani Harpreet Singh ordered the SGPC to remove senior vice-president Rajinder Singh Mehta from all the posts for a year.
The Akal Takht issued this direction for all those who were office-bearers and members of the executive committee in 2016 for not organising pashchatapsamagam (function to express regret and remorse) after the sacrilege of the saroops in a fire at the SGPC’s publishing house in May that year.
On being summoned, all former office-bearers and executive members appeared before the Takht. Mehta was an executive member at that time.
They were also directed to do sehaj path of Guru Granth Sahib.
THREE GET TANKHAH FOR PARDON TO LANGAH
Earlier, the jathedar asked them to face the sangat (Sikh community) and admit that they had committed a mistake.
For playing a role in granting pardon to former Akali minister Sucha Singh Langah, who was excommunicated for an immoral act by Takht, the Sikh clergy awarded tankhah (religious punishment) to SGPC member Gurinderpal Singh Gora, Rattan Singh Zaffarwal, the husband of an SGPC member, and Damdami Taksal media adviser Sarchand Singh.