Sikh Youth of Pun­jab kicked off the Khalsa Sajna Di­was prepa­ra­tions in the land of the birth of the Khalsa –Anand­pur Sahib by launch­ing the orig­i­nal Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar 551 and dis­trib­ut­ing it to the San­gat gath­ered in thou­sands to cel­e­brate the Baisakhi Purab.

Sikh Youth of Pun­jab –SYP has been up­hold­ing the cause of the gen­uine Nanakshahi cal­en­dar for the last many years. SYP ac­tivists and fol­low­ers stick to cel­e­brat­ing Sikh his­tor­i­cal and re­li­gious events also ac­cord­ing to this cal­en­dar.

In a spir­ited move, to com­mem­o­rate the Khalsa Sajna Di­was, SYP ac­tivists un­furled the Khalsa flag sym­bol­iz­ing Sikh sov­er­eignty.

While the Sikh world is mak­ing prepa­ra­tions all around the globe to cel­e­brate 550 years of Guru Nanak –the founder of the Sikh re­li­gion, the com­mu­nity and its lead­er­ship has not been able to ac­cept one cal­en­dar.

“We are de­ter­mined to re­store the Nanakshahi cal­en­dar to its pris­tine glory.”

Paramjit Singh Mand, Pres­i­dent, Sikh Youth of Pun­jab

Amidst the con­fu­sion that has been set up by the Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee in 2010, many Sikh bod­ies in Pun­jab in­clud­ing the Sikh Youth of Pun­jab and the Pan­thic Co­or­di­na­tion Com­mit­tee and the Di­as­pora, es­pe­cially Gur­d­waras in Chicago, USA, are hold­ing aloft the gen­uine Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar as pre­pared by Canada- based Cal­en­dar spe­cial­ist Pal Singh Pure­wal, ac­cepted by the SGPC gen­eral house and rat­i­fied by the Akal Takht Sahib in March-April 2003.

“We are de­ter­mined to re­store the Nanakshahi cal­en­dar to its pris­tine glory, said SYP pres­i­dent Paramjit Singh Mand. The cal­en­dar was ded­i­cated to 550^th an­niver­sary of Guru Nanak and was re­leased af­ter per­form­ing Ar­das at Takhat Kesgarh Sahib.

Talk­ing to the me­dia, he said, “Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar is a man­i­fes­ta­tion of the dis­tinct iden­tity of the Sikhs. The SGPC amend­ments are an ab­ject sur­ren­der to forces who have made in­roads into the Sikh re­li­gious set up.”

Ad­dress­ing the Sikh youth gath­ered for the event, Paramjit Singh Mand crit­i­cised the state gov­ern­ment for de­tain­ing and fram­ing Sikh youth on flimsy grounds, in the name of neu­tral­iz­ing the Ref­er­en­dum 2020 cam­paign. “Seek­ing ref­er­en­dum is­n’t a crime, rather it is peace­ful and de­mo­c­ra­tic method to re­solve con­flicts,” said he.

Touch­ing the resur­gence of the Dera Sauda fol­low­ers in the Malwa re­gion of Pun­jab, with full state pa­tron­age, Gur­nam Singh, vice-pres­i­dent of SYP said “dis­re­spect and des­e­cra­tion of Guru Granth Sahib con­tin­ues till date. Sikhs are em­phat­i­cally op­posed to all schis­matic groups that were un­der­scor­ing the fun­da­men­tals of Sikh re­li­gion in a silent and sys­tem­atic man­ner.”

“Dis­re­spect and des­e­cra­tion of Guru Granth Sahib con­tin­ues till date. Sikhs are em­phat­i­cally op­posed to all schis­matic groups that were un­der­scor­ing the fun­da­men­tals of Sikh re­li­gion in a silent and sys­tem­atic man­ner.”

Gur­nam Singh, Vice-Pres­i­dent, Sikh Youth of Pun­jab

Re­fer­ring to Barghari sac­ri­lege and Be­hbal Kalan in­ci­dent, SYP lead­ers said the Elec­tion Com­mis­sion of In­dia has grossly erred in re­mov­ing the key in­ves­ti­ga­tor IG Kun­war Vi­jay Par­tap Singh from the in­ves­ti­gat­ing panel. “He needs to be re­in­stated im­me­di­ately so that the in­ves­ti­ga­tion into the sac­ri­lege and po­lice fir­ing should not get de­railed or scut­tled”.

Anand­pur Sahib, 14 April 2019, WSN Pun­jab Bu­reau