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Live Gurbani Telecast: YouTube suspension brings spotlight back on SGPC’s own satellite channel
The suspension of the channel comes in the wake of a video uploaded on October 31 that featured a Sikh preacher making references to the assassins of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on her death anniversary.
YouTube’s week-long suspension of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee’s (SGPC) channel, SGPC Sri Amritsar, which streams live Gurbani kirtan from the Golden Temple, has once again put the spotlight on the gurdwara body’s proposed satellite channel, a project announced two years ago, which is yet to see any progress.
The suspension of the channel comes in the wake of a video uploaded on October 31 that featured a Sikh preacher making references to the assassins of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on her death anniversary.
On Thursday, chief minister Bhagwant Mann, while addressing an event at Sangrur, took a jibe at the SGPC for not launching the satellite channel.
In July 2023, SGPC launched efforts to start the channel after its agreement with G-Next Media Private Limited (PTC Channel) to telecast live Gurbani expired.
On July 26, 2023, a delegation, led by SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami, met the then information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur on July 26, 2023 who assured the gurdwara body full support of the Union government.
A SGPC spokesperson, privy to the developments, said that Centre nod is awaited to start the process as the gurdwara body will need to get the uplink and downlink licence from the I&B ministry.
“As per the Centre’s norms, a satellite channel can be registered only in the name of an individual, while as per the Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925, under which the SGPC was constituted, nothing can be procured or subscribed in the name of an individual, which is the main hurdle in this way,” the SGPC official said, pleading anonymity.
Since 1998, the SGPC has given the rights to broadcast Gurbani from the holiest Sikh shrine to various channels. In 2012, it signed an agreement with G-Next Media Private Limited (PTC Channel), in which Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal has a stake. The agreement expired on July 23, 2023. Under this agreement, the PTC channel gave ₹1 crore annually (with a 10% annual increase) to the education fund of SGPC. Pertinently, even after expiry of the agreement, the PTC channel has been broadcasting Gurbani live at the request of the SGPC in the absence of its own satellite channel.
While launching its YouTube/Web channel for the live telecast of gurbani in July 2023, Dhami made it clear that the PTC channel will continue the telecast Gurbani, but the telecast rights will remain with the SGPC.
