In a let­ter to the Cen­tral Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee Jamshed­pur, the Takht Patna Sahib Jathedar, Gi­ani Iqbal Singh cre­ates more con­fu­sion by al­low­ing lo­cal San­gat of Jamshed­pur to cel­e­brate Guru Gob­ind Singh Gur­purab as per con­ve­nience, leav­ing the Sikhs fur­ther dis­mayed and di­vided.

Alet­ter to the Cen­tral Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee Jamshed­pur, os­ten­si­bly meant to give lever­age to lo­cal San­gat to cel­e­brate Parkash Purab of Guru Gob­ind Singh as per lo­cal con­ve­nience, but com­ing un­der the sig­na­tures of Takht Patna Sahib Jathedar, Gi­ani Iqbal Singh, has spread more con­fu­sion amongst Sikh San­gat in an al­ready sur­charged at­mos­phere wherein many Gur­d­waras have re­solved to cel­e­brate the oc­ca­sion on 5 Jan­u­ary as per Mool Nanakshahi cal­en­dar.

This let­ter to the man­age­ment com­mit­tee of Gur­d­waras in Jamshed­pur has added fuel to the fire.   Even though San­gat of Jhark­hand and Bi­har is con­fused over this, though those in­volved will likely jus­tify it as a mat­ter of con­ve­nience for the lo­cal San­gat of Jhark­hand and Bi­har who are likely to at­tend the cel­e­bra­tions in large num­bers at Takht Har­mandir Ji Patna Sahib in on the date an­nounced by the Jathedars.

While the state gov­ern­ment of Patna is leav­ing no stone un­turned to cel­e­brate the con­clud­ing cer­e­monies of the 350th birth an­niver­sary of Guru Gob­ind Singh, the Takht Har­mandir Sahib Patna Sahib Com­mit­tee and the Takht Jathedar Gi­ani Iqbal Singh con­tinue their flip flop land­ing the Sikhs in a quag­mire of con­fu­sion and di­vi­sion.

World Sikh News re­li­ably learns that the let­ter ad­dressed to Shal­en­dar Singh and Harnek Singh, both of whom are re­ferred to as Chair­man -Cen­tral Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee in the let­ter is ac­tu­ally the re­sult of po­lit­i­cal ri­valry at the lo­cal level.

“The only way to save the Sikhs from more con­fu­sion and di­vi­sion is to re­con­sider the de­ci­sion from the por­tals of Akal Takht Sahib and give a call to the Sikhs to ob­serve Guru Gob­ind Singh Gur­purab on 5 Jan­u­ary this year and for all times to come.”

This let­ter has been pub­lished in lo­cal news­pa­pers in Patna and Sikhs of Bi­har and Jhark­hand and has bam­boo­zled the lo­cal Sikh pop­u­la­tion too. Mean­while, the Sikh youth or­gan­i­sa­tions of Jamshed­pur have al­ready de­cided to cel­e­brate the oc­ca­sion on 5 Jan­u­ary. 

At the meet­ing of the five Jathedars in No­vem­ber, against the wishes of the com­mu­nity and the rec­om­men­da­tion of the SGPC, the Jathedars, per­haps un­der pres­sure from Jathedar Iqbal Singh de­cided to cel­e­brate the 351st birth an­niver­sary of Guru Nanak Sahib on 25 De­cem­ber in­stead of 5 Jan­u­ary fixed by the Mool Nanakshahi cal­en­dar.

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The po­si­tion and sta­tus of the Jathedars has been fur­ther di­luted by this move and it has put the Sikhs lit­er­ally from the fry­ing pan into the fire. The only way to save the Sikhs from more con­fu­sion and di­vi­sion is to re­con­sider the de­ci­sion from the por­tals of Akal Takht Sahib and give a call to the Sikhs to ob­serve the Gur­purab on 5 Jan­u­ary this year and for all times to come.