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Selling of Birs in
Amritsar
Brothers
detained in Akal Takht room
In a bizarre incident, agitated activists of the
Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Committee picked up two
brothers from the shop of famous publishers Jeewan
Singh Chattar Singh and Sons, near Golden Temple,
and blackened their faces in full public view. They
later dragged them to a room of the Akal Takht
secretariat here this evening.
However, Baljit Singh and Prabhjit Singh were
freed from the illegal detention in the Akal Takht
room on the intervention of Giani Gurbachan Singh,
head granthi of the Golden Temple, and senior
police officers. The Jathedar of Akal Takht was
reportedly on duty when the incident occurred.
The brothers are accused of selling 50 “birs” of
Guru Granth Sahib to a Delhi-based Sikh couple. The
activists of the committee followed the vehicle of
the couple Surinder Singh and his wife up to Beas.
They intercepted them and compelled them to return
to Amritsar. The agitating Sikh activists alleged
that the birs were stacked in the Delhi couple’s
vehicle and they were wearing shoes. It is alleged
that the couple wanted to sell the birs at a high
price. It is alleged that both brothers were first
beaten up in full public view and then in the room
of Akal Takht. The heavy police force that reached
the incident site could not intervene because of
the surcharged religious sentiments.
A senior SGPC member and convener of the Akal
Purkh Ki Fauj, Jaswinder Singh Advocate, justified
the action of the committee. He said they won’t
allow the police to take action against the Sikh
activists. He said the matter had been brought to
the notice of SGPC chief Jathedar Avtar Singh. The
“direct action” was taken by the committee under
the leadership of Amrik Singh of the Damdami Taksal.
SSP KVP Singh, who himself went to the SGPC
office to defuse the situation, told The Tribune
that the “matter would be resolved”. He said nobody
had been arrested so far. He said the publishers
had hurt the sentiments of the Sikhs by selling the
birs against ‘maryada’, but the committee should
not have taken law into its hand. Both brothers
were taken to police station. “They have not been
arrested”, he clarified.
Harbhajan Singh, father of both victims, alleged
that the police stood a mute spectator when his
sons were in illegal custody. “This is no Sikhism”,
he said.
It may be mentioned here that on May 3, 2001,
the five Sikh high priests had summoned Bhai Jeewan
Singh and Chattar Singh and sons at Akal Takht on
May 14 for publishing the holy Guru Granth Sahib in
violation of the hukamnama (edict).
The hukamnama issued by the then Jathedar Akal
Takht, Bhai Ranjit Singh, on May 9, 1998, had
directed that the SGPC had the sole right to print
the ‘birs’ of holy Guru Granth Sahib as per the
Sikh maryada in order to prevent “blasphemous” acts
of private publishers.
However, despite repeated warnings, Bhai Jeewan
Singh and Chattar Singh continued to violate the
directives of Akal Takht and for this they were
also declared ‘tankhayia’. The publishers had
evaded their appearance at Akal Takht on one
pretext or the other.
Again, on April 22 last year, the SGPC had
directed the oldest publishers of Amritsar, Jeewan
Singh Chattar Singh and Sons, and other publishers
to stop the publication of Guru Granth Sahib as per
the directives of Akal Takht eight years ago.
The SGPC had warned that a CD, which was in its
possession, showed a publisher selling Guru Granth
Sahib to a Muslim seer even though Akal Takht had
banned performing “path” of Guru Granth Sahib at “samadhis”.
The “malpractice” of the publisher was also
highlighted through a sting operation. The
publisher was shown accusing the SGPC of having
failed to supply good quality “birs” as per the
demand of the Sikh “sangat”. |
