To counter RSS ‘ghar wapsi’, SGPC recruits preachers.
With the RSS and its affiliates having extended their ‘ghar wapsi’ programs to get Christians back to Sikhism in Punjab, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) — the apex representative body of Sikhs — has begun a concerted effort to get Sikhs, predominantly Mazhabi Sikhs, back to the fold. As part of the initiative, the SGPC, controlled by the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), recruited 27 new preachers Tuesday.
The 27 qualified recruits, with either an MA in religion or having undergone the three-year course in missionary colleges run by the SGPC, will join a team of more than 150 preachers already working in different parts of the state. The SGPC runs as many as nine missionary colleges, six of which are in Punjab. It runs three-year courses in these colleges focussing on Gurbani, Gurmat and Sikh principles.
SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar, who was in Amritsar Tuesday, confirmed the recruitment of the preachers. He added that more preachers were likely to be recruited and added that they would focus on the border belt to spread awareness about Sikhism. Makkar, however, asserted that the SGPC was against “forced conversions”.
Over the last few days, the SGPC has also started the Sikhi Saroop Mera Asli Roop (My real identity is being Sikh) initiative, where preachers are reaching out to schools and colleges with a form that contains an undertaking that one would return to Sikhism and follow Sikh tenets and principles. For students who fill and sign the form, an SGPC preacher hands over a medal as a token of appreciation.
SGPC Dharam Parchar Committee secretary Satbir Singh said by the end of January, nearly 10,000 students would be covered under the initiative. “This is all voluntary. The students sign the form voluntarily after they are convinced that they should return to follow Sikh principles. There have been cases where Sikh students get their hair shorn. The initiative is aimed at getting them back into the Sikhism fold,” Satbir Singh told The Indian Express.
To counter RSS ‘ghar wapsi’, SGPC recruits preachers | The Indian Express