Chandigarh: The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the organisation answerable for the upkeep of historic Sikh locations of worship in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, has determined to ask open tenders for granting stay telecast rights for “gurbani” from Amritsar’s Golden Temple to tv channels.
Gurbani are hymns performed at gurudwaras. At current, PTC — a Punjabi tv community, owned by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal — holds the correct to telecast gurbani from the Golden Temple.
“The 11-year contract with PTC was signed by the SGPC in 2012, and is ending subsequent month,” SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami stated at a press convention in Amritsar Tuesday. He added that PTC paid Rs 2 crore yearly to the SGPC’s training fund for the correct to relay the gurbani.
“Gurbani must be relayed stay worldwide throughout totally different time zones, which is the accountability of the telecaster. Additionally, no ads or sponsorships are allowed by the telecaster by means of the gurbani telecast to keep up the sanctity of the telecast,” stated Dhami.
He lashed out at Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for allegedly attempting to unfold misinformation concerning the telecast of gurbani from the Golden Temple, saying that Punjab was not a “performer’s stage” the place the CM may say something “for the sake of leisure”.
“As chief minister of the state, he must be cautious in what he says,” stated Dhami.
Mann had Sunday focused the SGPC for granting unique rights to telecast gurbani from the Golden Temple to just one TV channel.
In a tweet, the CM had stated that his authorities would pay for any technological enhancement that would result in each channel getting free rights to telecast the gurbani.
The Aam Aadmi Get together authorities in Punjab, led by Mann, is but to reply to Dhami’s feedback. ThePrint reached AAP Punjab spokesperson Malwinder Singh Kang over telephone for remark, however acquired no response until the time of publication of this report.
ThePrint additionally spoke to Rabindra Narayan, managing director and president of G-Subsequent Media Pvt Ltd, which runs PTC, who stated the channel obtained the rights to telecast gurbani from Golden Temple after a number of TV channels had refused to take action or failed to take action.
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Dhami lashes out at CM Mann
Chatting with the media, Dhami stated that an open tender course of can be adopted to decide on a single channel that can be given the correct to telecast the gurbani from the Golden Temple. He added that a number of channels is not going to be concerned within the telecast course of as maryada (custom) needed to be maintained through the telecast.
He identified that regardless of the telecast rights being given to just one channel for 11 years, “different broadcasters who managed to get unlawful hyperlinks of the stay telecast used it to earn cash by means of ads of every kind”.
“These unlawful telecasters give cell numbers and account numbers on the display screen to assemble funds they usually additionally run disgraceful advertisements over the telecast,” stated Dhami.
He recalled that when the SGPC had determined to stay telecast the gurbani method again in 1998, Punjab At the moment channel had first agreed to do it, however couldn’t execute the identical.
“After that, a number of different channels tried to relay the gurbani however couldn’t and stored transferring the settlement to different events. Lastly, a contract was signed with PTC in 2012 for 11 years. Initially, they had been to pay an quantity of Rs 1 crore per yr with a ten per cent enhancement annually which is now nearly Rs 2 crore,” Dhami stated.
He added: “For the reason that contract is ending subsequent month, we now have fashioned a five-member committee to put out the phrases and situations for the brand new contract which can be given on the premise of an open tender which can be broadly marketed.”
Referring to the Punjab CM, Dhami stated “he has tried to make a political situation out of a spiritual affair wherein solely the SGPC has jurisdiction”.
He additional stated the Punjab authorities ought to as a substitute give an account of the upkeep and maintenance of the environment of the Golden Temple, which comes underneath their jurisdiction.
“The Heritage Road resulting in the Golden Temple, as additionally different roads, are crying for upkeep and there’s filth throughout, however the chief minister is extra bothered about gurbani relay rights,” Dhami instructed reporters, including that “since coming to energy, the CM had made positive that gurbani shouldn’t be even relayed on the massive screens put up on Heritage Road”.
“As an alternative, these (large screens) are getting used to indicate his authorities’s ads. Mann has no reply to those questions,” Dhami alleged.
He added that “Bhagwant Mann generally asks the sangat (Sikh devotees) to cease placing cash within the golaks (providing packing containers at gurdwaras) and generally tries to create confusion concerning the difficulty of gurbani broadcast. It doesn’t swimsuit the individual holding the accountable place of chief minister”.
‘Half-a-dozen channels didn’t ship’
In the meantime speaking to ThePrint about PTC’s telecast rights of gurbani from the Golden Temple, Narayan stated, “After we got here into the image in 2007, the SGPC had gone by means of a number of agreements with at the least half-a-dozen channels who had didn’t ship.”
He additionally claimed that “channels that are relaying gurbani from [other] distinguished gurdwaras together with Patna Sahib [in Patna, Bihar] and Bangla Sahib [in Delhi] are charging the gurdwara administration to relay the gurbani. It’s a business settlement. In our case, we’re contributing to the SGPC academic fund to relay the gurbani. Additionally, we aren’t allowed to run any commercial or sponsorship through the 9 hours a day that gurbani is relayed”.
Based on Narayan, the channel has a crew at Golden Temple round the clock to stay telecast the gurbani. “All of the gear is ours and we coordinate the timing of the relay in such a fashion that each nation on the planet will get 4 hours of the morning gurbani relayed from right here, when it’s morning for them,” he instructed ThePrint.
He additional stated that in 2008, a public curiosity litigation had been filed within the Punjab and Haryana Excessive Court docket difficult the awarding of the gurbani contract to a single channel.
“A division bench of (then excessive court docket) Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Surya Kant had dismissed the petition with a high-quality, discovering no benefit within the allegations levelled,” Narayan claimed.
He added: “I quote from the judgment: ‘The administration of the shrine at Amritsar… is vested in a duly elected statutory physique, whose composition and efficiency are all regulated by the provisions of the Sikh Gurdwara Act and the principles framed thereunder. If the SGPC… considers the telecast of holy gurbani by means of a channel for listeners inside and out of doors the nation, to be appropriate with the Sikh spiritual belongings, a court docket exercising public curiosity jurisdiction would respect that call and maintain its palms off’,” Narayan stated.
He added that the order additionally said: “As noticed earlier, the query whether or not gurbani needs to be telecast and if that’s the case by what means and on what phrases and situations and by whom, can’t be the subject material of a public curiosity litigation. Administration of the affairs of the establishment can, in our opinion, be higher left to the SGPC.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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