Amritsar, September 5
The fact-finding committee formed by the state government comprising Sikh scholars has recommended a probe into the background of the controversial godman, Ashutosh.
The one-paged report (a copy of which is with The Tribune) sent to the Education Secretary, Mr N.S. Rattan, for necessary action reads: “After scrutinising the literature and audio and video-cassettes of the Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan, the committee has concluded that the contents are against Sikh tenets”.
The report says “by quoting from Guru Granth Sahib, Ashutosh has been projected as a living Guru”.
It further says the tone and tenor of the literature is “blasphemous, hurting Sikh sentiments”.
On careful scrutiny of the video-cassette of the Malout function, the committee members have concluded that at the function, he (Ashutosh) was equated with Guru Granth Sahib! (Sikhs consider Guru Granth Sahib as living Guru).
Activists of several radical Sikh organisations had sustained injuries during police firing and lathi charge while trying to disturb the function of the Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan.
The committee members are Dr B. Sinha, Dr Jasbir Singh Sabar, Dr Gurnam Kaur, Dr Jodh Singh, Dr Darshan Singh (of Punjabi University) and Dr Harpal Singh Pannu.
Dr Darshan Singh, Professor, Religious Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, said the report had not absolved Ashutosh of the charges of blasphemy as reported in a section of the press.
He said after studying the literature and speeches pertaining to the Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan it was clear Ashutosh was being projected as a living Guru.
The report states that one Swami Shardhanand had delivered an “inflammatory” speech at Tarn Taran, hurting the sentiments of the Sikh community which became the rootcause for the rift between Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan and the Sikhs. The sansthan had expelled the swami and tendered an unconditional apology to the Sikh clergy.
The government seems to be in a tight spot. Though the fact-finding committee had submitted its report to the state government in the first week of August, it has failed to make it public even after a month.
