'Video doctored for ulterior motives': Kartarpur management denies dance party, serving liquor on Gurdwara premises

Hours after BJP leader and former Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president Manjinder Singh Sirsa accused the Kartarpur Gurdwara administration of allowing blasphemous acts on Kartarpur Sahib premises, the Gurdwara authorities on Monday dismissed reports that participants drank alcohol and ate non-vegetarian food at a gathering. Two Kartarpur Project Management Unit (PMU) officials on Monday claimed that there was no dance at the reception held on 18 November and that the viral video which showed alcohol at the dinner party “must have been doctored for propaganda purposes”. “A girl was singing a Ghazal in the event and the video was doctored for ulterior motives,” one of the officials said. The officials also clarified that the dinner reception was held about 2 km from the Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in the Project Management Unit (PMU) complex. Separately, the PMU in a statement said a dinner reception was held last weekend for stakeholders for the development of Phase-II of Kartapur and providing better facilities to the visitors. “On Saturday night (November 18) the PMU hosted an informal dinner at Kartarpur in which heads or their representatives of all important government departments of district Narowal, including the judiciary, district administration, police, Rangers, Customs, Anti-Narcotics officials and journalists attended the dinner, the PMU said in the statement. It said the purpose of the event was to enhance coordination and cooperation among all departments/stakeholders concerned with the deployment of Phase II of Kartarpur. It said the deputy commissioner Narowal and all other participants assured of their complete cooperation and role in further development of Kartarpur and religious tourism. Earlier in the day, speaking to ANI news agency, Sirsa said, “The PMU Kartarpur Corridor committee in Narowal including the local Deputy Commissioner and DSP of Kartarpur Gurdwara administration organised a dance party, consumed alcohol and meat…Strict action should be taken against them. I condemn this act strongly and appeal to the Pakistan government to register a case against them and put them behind bars…” In a separate post on X, Sirsa expressed dismay over Sayed Abu Bakar Qureshi, CEO PMU Kartarpur Corridor, organising a non-vegetarian party in Gurdwara Shri Darbar Sahib complex which was attended by 80 people including Mohammad Sharukh, Deputy Commissioner Narowal, District Police Officer Narowal also.

I strongly condemn the sacrilegious incident involving alcohol and meat consumption within the sacred premises of Gurudwara Sri Kartarpur Sahib. It's particularly disheartening that the Kartarpur Gurdwara committee administration was involved in this.

Urgently calling… pic.twitter.com/BK5WGr7wdH

— Manjinder Singh Sirsa (@mssirsa) November 19, 2023

“Sikh community worldwide feels betrayed by this disrespect to the sacred site where Guru Nanak Dev ji took his last breath. I demand swift accountability and action from @GovtofPakistan in this regard,” Sirsa posted on X. He also posted the purported videos of the incident which went viral on social media. In another post, Sirsa said that this is not the first time blasphemous actions have happened at Sri Kartarpur Sahib. “This is not the first time blasphemous actions have happened at Sri Kartarpur Sahib… such derogatory things have happened time & again but  @GovtofPakistan  didn’t take any action against the Board for making Sri Kartarpur Sahib a picnic spot! Pak Govt should & some respect to Sikh sentiments and dissolve the anti-Sikh PMU of Sri Kartarpur Sahib,” he wrote.

We had objected to the appointment of a non-Sikh person as CEO of PMU Kartarpur Corridor in 2021. And now such blasphemous acts like dancing, drinking alcohol and eating meat has happened at Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara complex because the management board has no knowledge of Sikh… pic.twitter.com/Se8aIM1HgT

— Manjinder Singh Sirsa (@mssirsa) November 20, 2023

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He said the Sikhs had objected to the appointment of a non-Sikh person as CEO of PMU Kartarpur Corridor in 2021 as they feared blasphemous acts might be performed at the Gurdwara complex. Inaugurated on November 9, 2019, on the eve of the 550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak, the first Guru of Sikhism, Kartarpur has a special significance in the Sikh religion as Guru Nanak had spent the last years of his life at the place.

The visa-free Kartarpur corridor links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district. The crossing allows devotees from India to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Narowal, some 130 km from Lahore in Pakistan, from Gurudwara Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdaspur district, Punjab, India. The gurdwara in Kartarpur is 4.7 kilometres from the India-Pakistan border on the Pakistani side. With inputs from agencies