Giani Harpreet Singh, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) and former acting Jathedar of the Akal Takht, on Saturday questioned the selective release of a video showing Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appearing before the Akal Takht in January. He described the move as "neither appropriate nor fair" and warned that it risked undermining the institution's credibility.
Selective Clips Create Confusion
Reacting to the release of excerpts from the proceedings held inside the Akal Takht secretariat, Harpreet Singh stated that selective clips presented facts in an incomplete manner. This, he said, created confusion among the Sikh community and affected the "dignity, sanctity and credibility" of the Akal Takht.
In a post on X, Harpreet Singh recalled a similar incident during his tenure as acting Jathedar, when only selected portions of one of his videos were made public and later used to create a misleading narrative. "When only carefully chosen excerpts of a conversation are released instead of the complete discussion, the truth becomes obscured and the Sangat is deprived of the full context necessary to form an informed opinion," he wrote.
Call for Full Disclosure
Harpreet Singh maintained that videos of discussions inside the Akal Takht secretariat should, in principle, not be made public. However, if there was a compelling reason to release them, the entire recording—and not selected clips—should have been put in the public domain. He also sought a clarification from the Akal Takht secretariat on how such selective videos were being released and under whose authorisation.
The Akal Takht on Saturday released a video of Mann's appearance before it on January 15 in connection with a purported objectionable clip. This came days after the Akal Takht declared the chief minister a "Guru Dokhi" and "Khalsa Panth Virodhi" over the controversy.
Conflicting Reactions from AAP and SAD
AAP Punjab media in-charge Baltej Pannu said the footage had "completely exposed the false narrative and misinformation campaign" allegedly run by the Shiromani Akali Dal over the purported clip. He noted that the video showed Mann had categorically told the Akal Takht that the person seen in the viral clip was not him and that the video was fake. Pannu further claimed that two separate forensic examinations of more than 1,100 frames had established that the individual in the video did not match the chief minister.
Shiromani Akali Dal chief spokesperson Arshdeep Singh Kler, however, offered a different account. He said Mann had told the Akal Takht during his deposition that he had no objection to a forensic examination as he believed the videos were fake and AI-generated. Kler claimed that forensic reports had subsequently found the videos to be genuine and alleged that the AAP government had changed its stand by arguing that the person seen in the clip was not Mann. He urged the chief minister to accept the Akal Takht's verdict and submit to it instead of creating an atmosphere of confrontation with the institution.
