Col­ors TV chan­nel wants to give Sikhs a new mean­ing for the 5 Ks given to the Khalsa by Guru Gob­ind Singh. In the forth­com­ing se­r­ial Chotti Sar­darni, these 5 Ks will be five ad­jec­tives in Hindi to de­scribe a woman who wants to pro­tect a child born out of wed­lock. Un­less the Sikhs have a full-fledged, full-time ded­i­cated team to chal­lenge such ex­cur­sions or in­dulge in ad­vo­cacy to cre­ate aware­ness of the nu­ances of Sikhism, there is no stop­ping such blas­phemy.

COLORS TV is par­tic­u­larly guilty of com­ing up with se­ri­als with Sikh themes with­out re­search. Some foot­loose in­tel­lec­tu­als, over-en­thu­si­as­tic Sikh ac­tors and ac­tresses, from Bol­ly­wood and the TV world are ap­par­ently their guides. In Chotti Sar­darni, the mak­ers of the se­r­ial mis­in­ter­pret the 5 Ks, which is core to Sikhism.

By giv­ing such nasty ideas of how a re­li­gion’s ba­sics can be flouted, Col­ors TV chan­nel is not only un­der­min­ing Sikh fun­da­men­tals but also lay­ing the foun­da­tion for oth­ers to in­dulge in more den­i­gra­tion.

As if the mock­ery of the Sikh im­age was not enough in Bol­ly­wood, it has now started with full vigour on the In­dian small screen. In their en­deav­our to reach au­di­ences in Pun­jab and the Di­as­pora, satel­lite TV chan­nels are in­dulging in twist­ing and tweak­ing the fun­da­men­tals of Sikhism.

In the of­fi­cial promo, re­pro­duced here, one can see how the story mis­in­ter­prets the 5 Ks, which is core to Sikhism. Sikhs, Sikhism and Pun­jab are the new found love of Bol­ly­wood and TV chan­nels and they have con­sciously taken this route to dis­mount the high ethics of the Sikh re­li­gion through their triv­ial sto­ries and ir­re­li­gious ac­tors and ac­tresses. The gen­eral sec­re­tary of Tak­sali Akali Dal -Kar­nail Singh Pir­mo­hammed has said, “This blas­phemy and sin is un­ac­cept­able and we will not al­low this se­r­ial to make it to the screens.”

Just be­cause the pro­tag­o­nist hero­ine in the se­r­ial is Nim­rit Kaur Ahluwalia does not mean that you can get away with mur­der­ing Sikh ba­sics by shoot­ing around a Gur­d­wara. Dou­ble en­ten­dre may be a tool of Bol­ly­wood cin­ema to gain eye­balls, but to stoop down to give such mean­ings to re­li­gious text is down­right sac­ri­le­gious.

Singh Sabha Mum­bai has re­acted strongly and in a mis­sive, to the Col­ors Chan­nel the gen­eral sec­re­tary of the body has said that “We fail to un­der­stand the rea­son for Colours TV to keep in­dulging in such ex­cur­sions every now and then to mock Sikhs and Sikhism. This is not the first time that the chan­nel is hob­nob­bing with Sikh themes with a twist and tweak that den­i­grates the fun­da­men­tals of Sikhism.”

Singh Sabha Mum­bai Gen­eral Sec­re­tary Man­mo­han Singh has ap­prised Col­ors TV say­ing, “We learn that the re­lease of the se­r­ial is im­mi­nent. In the in­ter­est of peace and har­mony amongst the Sikhs and to pro­tect Sikh in­ter­ests, Sri Guru Singh Sabha Mum­bai, as the rep­re­sen­ta­tive body of the Sikhs in West­ern In­dia, calls upon you to with­draw this se­r­ial in its pre­sent form im­me­di­ately.”

As Sikhs are very up­set, should Col­ors TV not re­lent, it should be pre­pared to face the wrath of the Sikhs through pub­lic protests and le­gal chal­lenges.

As per me­dia re­ports, the SGPC and the Akal Takht Jathedar also has re­ceived sev­eral com­plaints against the forth­com­ing se­r­ial, but so far, there has been no of­fi­cial re­ac­tion in this re­gard.

Un­less Sikhs chal­lenge the brushes and artists who paint the Sikhs in a bad light, such “col­ors” will con­tinue. We have had too many wake-up calls. When will enough be enough? The moot point is, when will the Sikhs wake up? Will we?