Chandigarh,
The usual revelry and rush of devotees in gurdwaras on Baisakhi was missing in Punjab on Monday as people in the state largely celebrated the festival indoors amid a curfew imposed to check the spread of coronavirus.
Baisakhi is one of Punjab’s biggest festivals and celebrates the foundation of ‘Khalsa Panth’ (Sikh order) by the tenth Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh. It also marks the start of harvest season.
The Golden Temple in Amritsar, one of Sikhism’s holiest shrines, saw very few devotees turn up to offer prayers. Normally, nearly two lakh devotees visit the shrine on Baisakhi.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which manages gurdwaras in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, had deployed teams to discourage people from assembling.
SGPC Chief Secretary Roop Singh said the committee has never stopped anyone from coming to the Golden Temple but one should not violate the government orders. Barricades were put up at all roads leading to the Golden Temple to prevent overcrowding, a police official said.
Similar scenes were witnessed at the Takht Kesgarh Sahib in the holy city of Anandpur Sahib, where the Khalsa Panth was founded in 1699.
Managements of several other gurdwaras across Punjab and state capital Chandigarh politely refused to let devotees inside.
They appealed to them to offer prayers at homes and listen to ‘gurbani’ online.
“In the morning, ”sangat” (devotees) came to pay obeisance but we requested them to offer prayers at their homes and also asked them to listen to ‘kirtan” on our YouTube channel.
An official of Gurdwara Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib in Chandigarh’s Sector 34 said it was for the first time that he and others could not enter the gurdwara. ( PTI )
