VANCOUVER, BC, Canada—Around 400 Saroops of Dhan Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee arrived in Vancouver from India amid reports of beadbi. The Saroops were sent by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on a bus which was placed in a ship. The total journey from India took a reported two months.
A video has been released which shows damage done to the bus – the video also shows some Saroops which do not have any rumalle covering them.
While speaking with Sikh24, a local Vancouver based sevadar said that the condition of the bus is “bad.” He said that the video does not show all the issues with the placement and respect of Guru Sahib.
We have been told that the Saroops arrived in Vanvouver a week ago but have remained at a shipping port in Vancouver. They are being taken to Khalsa School Newton on October 7th with an event planned for 10 AM.
There was a backlash against the SGPC and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) earlier this year, when a container full of Saroops was stopped en-route to the port by Sikh youth in New Delhi. These Saroops were planned to be shipped to Canada, however due to intervention by Sikh youth, they were taken to a Gurdwara in Delhi and the matter was then raised with Sri Akal Takht Sahib.
Akal Takht Sahib has since passed a resolution banning transportation of Saroops via sea containers. It seems that in order to abide the resolution of Akal Takht Sahib, the SGPC had shipped the Saroop via bus, that was ultimately loaded on a ship.
While Akal Takht Sahib has condemned the practice of shipping Saroops via sea, the SGPC has not granted permission to print Saroops in Western countries. As per an earlier Akal Takht Sahib directive, only the SGPC had permission to print Saroops of Guru Granth Sahib. Although this mandate is seldom followed in Punjab, elsewhere, Sikh sangat has found no cooperation from the SGPC in setting up printing presses. The SGPC has teamed with a “wealthy” Sikh businessman in Northern California to setup a printing press, however the project is far from completion.
