Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib Statue controversy in Delhi; newspaper admitted mistake
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
India’s largest circulated English newspaper-Times of India group’s evening newspaper of the national capital Delhi “Sandhya Times”, had printed a news on April 3,2021, that the BJP led union government is going to install a ‘statue’ dedicated to the 400th birth anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur outside Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib, Chandni Chowk, in old Delhi. The prime minister would inaugurate it on May 1, this year. This news on the centre’s proposal, has triggered a controversy.
After the publication of this news, by a newspaper of national repute, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has lodged its protest with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) asking it to immediately drop the proposal of erecting a statue or any kind of structure outside Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib or anywhere else in Delhi, as it would defy the Sikh ‘rehat maryada’ which prohibits creating idols of Gurus, as idol worship is prohibited in Sikhism.
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjinder Singh Sirsa’s letter to PM Narendra Modi contesting that “even any memorial could not be built without taking the Sikh body into confidence. The statue culture is certainly against our tenets and will create unrest amongst the society.”
The newspaper later tweeted a clarification on its own that “no such proposal is in the pipeline to install a statue of Guru Tegh Bahadur outside Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib, Chandni Chowk, in old Delhi. The govt has proposed to build a “memorial” dedicated to the 400th birth anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur outside Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib, Chandni Chowk.
RP Singh, BJP leader also tweeted “Proposal is of making a memorial in memory of the supreme sacrifice of 9th Guru ji & sikhs.”
संशोधन : कल प्रकाशित इस खबर में शहीदी स्मारक की जगह प्रतिमा छप गया है। वहां श्री गुरु तेग बहादुर जी की प्रतिमा नहीं, शहीदी स्मारक बनाया जा रहा है। इस चूक से आपको हुई असुविधा का हमें खेद है। pic.twitter.com/GScfItgenn
— सान्ध्य टाइम्स (@SandhyaTimes4u) April 4, 2021
April 5,2021
