Despite a legal notice and objections from the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), GTC Channel, a private broadcasting network, continued to air live telecast of Gurbani kirtan from Golden Temple on Friday.
On Thursday, the SGPC had initiated legal action against the channel for streaming the live kirtan using SGPC’s official YouTube feed without authorisation, with president Harjinder Singh Dhami asserting that “all rights pertaining to the broadcast of Gurbani from Harmandir Sahib were exclusively vested with SGPC”.
In a social media post addressed to Dhami, GTC managing director Rabindra Narayan said, “Out of respect for you, we temporarily stopped the Gurbani broadcast. However, our phones would not stop ringing. From England, Canada, the United States, Australia and across the world, the Sangat kept asking the same question: Where have the live Darbar Sahib broadcasts gone?”
He added, “Faced with the Sangat’s yearning for Gurbani, we had no choice but to resume the broadcast. We have received your legal notice. You may approach the court, go to the police, or even send me to jail—I will bow my head with folded hands. But stopping the Sangat from accessing Gurbani is not within my power.”
“With folded hands, I humbly request that you allow us to continue this service with full respect for Sikh traditions and decorum. We are strengthening your hands and furthering your mission of spreading Gurbani. Please show magnanimity, Pardhan Sahib. Do not be angry. Instead, be happy that Gurbani is reaching every home,” he appealed to Dhami.
{{/usCountry}}“With folded hands, I humbly request that you allow us to continue this service with full respect for Sikh traditions and decorum. We are strengthening your hands and furthering your mission of spreading Gurbani. Please show magnanimity, Pardhan Sahib. Do not be angry. Instead, be happy that Gurbani is reaching every home,” he appealed to Dhami.
{{/usCountry}}Narayan is the former managing director of PTC Channel, which is owned by Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Between 2012 and 2023, Gurbani broadcast rights from the Golden Temple had been with G-Next Media Pvt Ltd, which runs PTC Channel. After the agreement expired in July 2023, PTC continued to telecast live kirtan at SGPC’s request, bearing the monthly expenditure of approximately ₹12 lakh for the technical set-up and staff, while the SGPC also streams it on its official YouTube channel.