M A I N N E W S Purewal flays changes in Nanakshahi calendar

Says it is due to vote-bank politics

Perneet Singh/TNS Amritsar, February 17

Challenging those who are objecting to the original Nanakshahi calendar to show their credentials, Pal Singh Purewal, the calendars architect, today flayed the amendments made to it, saying the changes made as mere amendments will be a misnomer as the entire base of the calendar has been changed. Showing copies of a letter that he has written to Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh in this regard here today, Purewal said, We had fixed the dates of all 12 sangrands and all major gurpurbs except for three in our calendar. But now they have reverted to Bikrami calendar for observing all sangrands and four gurpurbs  Gurta Gaddi Diwas of Guru Granth Sahib, the Martyrdom Day of Guru Arjun Dev and birth and death anniversaries of Guru Gobind Singh. As a result of this, the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh will be celebrated twice in 2011, 2014, 2017, 2022 and 2025 while it will not fall in 2012, 2015, 2018 and 2023. In 2014 and 2025, the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, falling in December for the second time in these years, will coincide with the martyrdom day of his younger sahibzadas as per the amended calendar, he added. Purewal said, I have written this letter to the Jathedar based on technical facts and not opinions. I challenge the people objecting to the original calendar to show their credentials. They have no right to criticise the calendar. He said he had decades of experience in the field and had to his credit 500-year calendar based on solar charts and 1,500-year Hijri Calendar. He said the Sikh Panth never witnessed as much unanimity and unity as it did during the implementation of the original calendar in 2003. If the amended calendar has no shortcomings, why the Akal Takht Jathedar, during his foreign tours, needs to appeal every gurdwara to follow it, he wondered. According to Purewal, 80 per cent of the gurdwaras abroad are following the original calendar. He said the problems, which were sorted out in the original calendar, were back now and todays version was a mixture of both the Nanakshahi and Bikrami Calendars. He blamed vote-bank politics for the changes made in the calendar. It is all politics and no science in the move, he added. He said all, except for some fringe groups, accepted the 2003 version of the calendar and the Panth should revert to it. Former SGPC secretary Manjeet Singh Calcutta and Dal Khalsa secretary-general Kanwarpal Singh Bittu, who were also present, alleged that the RSS was behind these amendments.