Punjab Outlook

Jalandhar: The management committee of Takht Patna Sahib has alleged that members of a Guru Granth Sahib satkar committee from Punjab were harassing local devotees in the Rajauli area of Bihar in the name of “maryada” (code of religious conduct) and
were defaming the Patna Sahib committee too.The management committee also claimed that after they questioned satkar committee members, they apologised for their”mistakes” and assured to not repeat their acts in future.
In a statement issued on Monday, management committee president Jagjot Singh Sodhi said were receiving complaints about the activities of satkar committee members for harassing people in Rajauli and defaming the Takht committee. “I asked dharam parchar (religious propagation) committee
chairman Mohinderpal Singh Dhillon and member Harpal Singh Johl to visit the area and get first-hand information. During their visit to Rajauli, they found that members of the satkar committee were harassing
people in the name of maryada and were also issuing statements against the Takht Patna Sahib management committee. All this was vitiating the atmosphere in Rajauli, and chances of some scuffle also increased,” Sodhi
said.”The management of gurdwaras in eastern India comes under the jurisdiction of the Takht Patna Sahib committee. In case, there were any issues about the violation of maryada, these should be brought to their notice.
However, satkar committee members were working in Rajauli without informing the takht committee. They were called and questioned, and they admitted to their mistakes and apologised, promising they would not repeat
these again,” said Sodhi.Sodhi said the satkar committee members wanted to forcibly remove very old birs of Guru Granth Sahib from
traditional maths of the Udasi order on the pretext that maryada was not being maintained. “Those preserving
these very old birs were strongly opposing any such move, and this could have lead to confrontation. Such
elements are pushing people away from Guru Granth Sahib, instead of bringing people close to Sikhism,” he said.