AMRITSAR: Shiromani Gurdwarwa Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) should give a representation to foreign-based Sikhs given its shrinking jurisdiction and spread of Sikhism.
While questioning why the Sikh’s single largest representative body Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has not made any adequate arrangement for the printing of Saroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS) at par with the spread of Sikhism across the globe, the US-based Sikh scholar Thaminder Singh Anand has urged the SGPC to focus on the Sikh issues especially the Sikh religious issues than fulfilling the political aspirations of a select group of people.
In a hard-hitting statement, Thaminder Singh Anand of US-based SikhBookClub.com alleged that ever since the formation of SGPC it had not given any significant representation to the Sikhs living outside Punjab.
“Sikhs have spread across the world and so the Gurdwara’s have come up in all the countries, Sikh issues are also multiplying but the SGPC, which claims to be the sole representative of Sikhs, is simply not concerned about their issues and is instead using its influence and energy to propagate its supremacy without doing anything on the ground” alleged Thaminder Singh Anand.
Once again reminding the issue of mistakes made in the printing of SGGS, he alleged “since 1952, the SGPC has made no effort to correct the over 4000 printing mistakes in SGGS despite the fact that they have 3 committees constituted for the purpose but none of their recommendations has been implemented” adding that “these 4000 plus printing errors were identified by none other but their own committee’s which were headed by the Jathedar’s of Akal Takht”.
He also urged the officiating Jathedar of Akal Takht Giani Harpreet Singh to let the Sikhs know which handwritten Saroop of SGGS was followed by SGPC when it had started printing the Saroop of SGGS and which committee of intellectuals was constituted for the purpose. Stating that the jurisdiction of SGPC has been continuously shrinking,
Thaminder Singh Anand said “SGPC’s territory is now very limited and has shrunk up to Punjab-Haryana’s Shambu border, when the Sikhs living abroad tries to solve their issues themselves, the SGPC, as well as Akal Takht, creates obstacles referring to their monopoly in solving the Sikh issues which instead of being resolved they remain hanging fire and make them more complex”.