Chandigarh- Shiromani Akali Dal Punar-Surjit General Secretary S. Gurpratap Singh Wadala, in a written press statement, said that the SGPC President announced today during a press conference that a legal notice was being sent to a news channel for allegedly starting the live broadcast of Gurbani without authorization.
However, Wadala said that the legal notice should actually have been served to Advocate Arshdeep Singh Kaler, spokesperson of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), who had declared during a press conference yesterday that any television channel could telecast Gurbani live through the link issued by the SGPC.
Wadala questioned whether the SGPC President had the courage to issue a legal notice to Arshdeep Singh Kaler and ask under what authority he made such an announcement on behalf of the SGPC. He asked when, if ever, the SGPC had officially authorized Kaler to make such declarations.
He further recalled that on June 19, Arshdeep Singh Kaler had displayed before the media copies of letters sent by the Secretariat of Sri Akal Takht Sahib to the Chief Minister, even though those letters were never available in the public domain. According to Wadala, that press conference created the impression that Kaler was acting as an official spokesperson of the Akal Takht Secretariat by publicly revealing confidential correspondence.
Wadala said that Kaler has now committed another serious violation by making statements regarding Gurbani broadcasting on behalf of the SGPC. He demanded that the SGPC take notice of the matter and initiate legal proceedings against him.
Commenting further on the Gurbani broadcast issue, Wadala said that the SGPC's strong reaction was difficult to understand. He argued that if a television channel owned by the Badal family is allowed to broadcast Gurbani, then GTC Channel should not be prevented from doing so free of cost merely because it is associated with an MLA.
He demanded that any channel complying with the prescribed rules and offering free Gurbani broadcasts should not be stopped from doing so.