‘Mahan Kosh’ copies disposal row: Booked, Punjabi University V-C issues written apology

Registrar Davinderpal Singh, however, said that the university was only trying to dispose of the copies in a “eco-friendly manner” by burying them in the soil.

The FIR against the four officials has been registered under Section 298 (act of injuring, damaging or defiling a place of worship or any sacred object with intent to insult the religion or a group of people) of BNS at Urban Estate police station.

The FIR has been registered on the complaint of Manvinder Singh, a student of the university, who along with others including Nirmaljit Singh, Yadvinder Singh, in a complaint to the police said that the university authorities “committed an act of sacrilege by trying to dispose of the Mahan Kosh copies in a pit and pouring water of it, instead of following the ritualistic procedure to dispose such sacred texts with respect and dignity”. The complaint adds that the students reached the spot to “stop the act of desecration by university authorities”.

The cash-strapped university had reportedly spent Rs 2.50 crore on printing these copies of Mahan Kosh in three languages. The move of the university to print Mahan Kosh had also come under scanner as the Punjab government’s languages department already prints its copies as per demand.

Meanwhile, V-C Dr Jagdeep Singh issued suspension orders of Dr Harinderpal Singh Kalra, university’s publication bureau in-charge and Dr Himender Bharti, director, Centre for Restoration of Ecosystem of Punjab, for “negligence in the procedure adopted to dispose Mahan Kosh.”

Later, the vice-chancellor also issued a written apology stating that the university never intended to hurt anyone’s feelings, and that the motive was just to “destroy the erroneous copies in an environmentally friendly way to prevent their misuse or resale”.

In his letter, Dr Jagdeep Singh said that two pits were dug in the university as it was decided to fill them with fresh water and let the paper perish naturally. He added that following the students’ protests, he realised that the proper procedure as per the Sikh Maryada [the official code of conduct and convention for Sikhs]should have been followed to dispose of the copies.

A path is also being held in the university campus to apologise for the “inadvertent mistake”.

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