AMRITSAR: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has taken strict notice of allegedly converting the place of Sikh’s first master Guru Nanak Dev in Mechukha, Arunachal Pradesh into a Buddhist place.
SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami on Saturday said that on April 8, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister had uploaded photographs of his visit on social media which reveals that the Guru Nanak’s place had been allegedly converted into a Buddhist place.
On April 8, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu posted on his Facebook page “Guru Padmasambhava — a symbol of peace, spiritual perfection, knowledge & wisdom. Blessed to have visited Neh-Pema Shelpu Drupkhang near Mechukha, a Buddhist pilgrimage site where Guru Padmasambhava meditated. Offered prayers and sought blessings for all”.
The legend has it that during one of his Udasis (travels) of Guru Nanak Dev to Tibet he had stopped in Mechuka and meditated there. Later a gurudwara was built to mark his Baba Nanak’s taposthan.
On the other side Memba community, one of the Buddhist tribes of Arunachal Pradesh believe call the site as Neh-Pema Shelpu which was converted into a gurdwara after the Sikh soldiers of the Sikh Regiment which was deployed in Mechuka in 1986 converted it into a gurdwara.
Stating that converting a religious place into another community’s religious place was a violation of section 25(Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion) of the Indian constitution, Dhami sought immediate intervention from the president of India, Prime Minister of India, home minister and National Minority Commission.
Dhami said Colonel Dalvinder Singh Garewal had played an important role in establishing the Gurdwara Guru Nanak Tapo Asthan in memory of Guru Nanak Dev in Mechukha in 1987 but alleged that attempts were being made to eliminate the religious place of Sikhs.
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