Purewal slams SGPC on calendar amendments

The ongoing controversy over the amendments made by the Akal Takht and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in the Nanakshahi Calendar last year took yet another turn with Canada-based Sikh engineer Pal Singh Purewal,the maker of the calendar,terming the changes “unnecessary”,“misleading” and “conspired by RSS”. He said the SGPC made the amendments in a hush-hush manner on the dictates of its “political masters” under the RSS.

Talking to the media,Purewal said the SGPC and the Akali leadership had done a heinous crime by intermingling Nanakshahi Calendar with Bikrami Calendar. “This is no amendment but total drift towards Bikrami Calendar,” he said,adding that the decision was arbitrary and the original version of the calendar,as adopted in 2003,should be restored.

A retired computer engineer,Purewal started working on the calendar in the 1960s and prepared it according to Sikh religious traditions and Gurbani to observe the gurpurabs and Sikh historic dates. He also wrote an open letter to Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh,urging him to revert to the original calendar