Delhi Minister Manjinder Sirsa slams Dhruv Rathee over Sikh history video; DSGMC files complaint
Delhi Cabinet Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Monday slammed YouTuber Dhruv Rathee for his recent video on Sikh history, terming it a "disrespectful" and "an attempt at distorting the legacy of Sikh gurus and martyrs". Rathee's AI-generated video titled "The Sikh Warrior Who Terrified the Mughals" has been condemned by various quarters, including the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) that said Sikh gurus should not be represented in human form or in films.
The SGPC and the SAD demanded an immediate takedown of the video which features artificial intelligence-generated images of Guru Gobind Singh and his four sons known as 'Sahibzadas'. They also sought strictest action by the government in the matter.
Reacting to the video, Sirsa, in a post on X, said, "I strongly condemn Dhruv Rathee's recent video that is not only factually flawed but blatantly disrespectful to Sikh history and sentiments."
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Villas Prices In Dubai Might Be More Affordable Than You Think
Villas In Dubai | Search Ads
Get Quote
Undo
"Showing Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji crying as a child is an insult to the spirit of Sikhism, which stands for fearlessness, resilience, and Chardi Kala."
The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime Cell, urging authorities to take action against Rathee and review his YouTube account.
Live Events
DSGMC President Harmeet Singh Kalka stated that the video not only distorts facts about the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji and the legacy of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Ji but also features AI-generated visuals of Sikh gurus which is strictly prohibited in Sikhism.
In the complaint, the DSGMC said, "Such unauthorised portrayals are a grave violation of Sikh religious principles and demonstrate a blatant disregard for our spiritual values. Presenting half-truths under the guise of historical storytelling misguides the public and offends the sentiments of millions."
The committee said Rathee's influential YouTube channel, with over 10 million followers, has the potential of spreading misinformation widely, and urged the law enforcement agency to treat the matter with due urgency.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
16 minutes ago
- Time of India
‘Every festival should be celebrated with love': Bihar governor visits YouTuber Khan Sir's coaching institute in Patna during Eid celebrations; discusses education, culture & crimes against women
NEW DELHI: Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Saturday visited educator and YouTuber Khan Sir's coaching institute in Patna on the occasion of Eid-al-Adha, where they discussed education, cultural preservation, and social issues including crimes against women. During the visit, Governor Khan observed the classroom facilities and expressed interest in teaching a class himself. "Every festival should be celebrated with love... I have seen Khan Sir on YouTube too. This young man is doing a great job... So many blessings must pour for him out of the hearts of poor students who can't pay fees... All my thanks and good wishes to him. May God grant him the power to do greater work so he can create more students like him who serve society with compassion," said Governor Khan. Khan Sir explained the purpose of the Governor's visit, saying "The Governor came here today as part of the Eid al Adha celebrations... He wanted to see the classroom. After he got on stage, he said that he wants to take a class too... He said that our culture should be preserved. Western culture is dominating India. Indian culture is fading away. We have to preserve our heritage." The discussion also touched upon the recent rape case of a minor girl in Muzaffarpur. Khan Sir shared his conversation with the Governor on this matter. "I spoke to the Governor about this... Such people should be boycotted. What do you expect in a country where even rapists get good lawyers?... I request the lawyers of our country that if all the lawyers unite so that if someone has committed rape, acid attack, burnt a woman to death, kidnapping then they will not get a good lawyer. Such incidents should be brought under the category of treason... The Governor was also very concerned about this matter," Khan Sir stated. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Eid wishes , messages , and quotes !
Time of India
31 minutes ago
- Time of India
Punjab Police asks Tinder details about account suspected to be linked to jailed MP Amritpal Singh
The Punjab Police has sought information from dating app Tinder regarding an an account suspected to be linked with Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh , who has been booked in the murder of a Sikh activist, PTI reported. Faridkot Police said it was invsetigating the murder case of Sikh activist Gurpreet Singh Hari Nau, who was shot dead on October 9, 2024, while returning home from the village Gurdwara on his motorcycle. Nau was a member of the pro-Khalistani outfit ' Waris Punjab De ' headed by Amritpal Singh. Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav, in October last year, claimed that Nau was killed allegedly at the behest of Amritpal Singh, who is currently jailed under the National Security Act . by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Buy One, Get One Free, Up To 50% Discount, Expiring Soon Original Adidas Shop Now The police further claimed that gangster-turned-terrorist Arshdeep Singh, alias Arsh Dalla, was the mastermind behind the killing. They said said two shooters of the gang have been arrested in the case and have been registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Arms Act. In the communication to Tinder dated May 26 and accessed by PTI on Saturday, police wrote, "This is to inform you that the Punjab Police, India, is currently investigating a murder case registered under FIR No. 159 dated 10-10-2024 under Sections 103(1), 126(2), and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 along with relevant provisions of the Arms Act. 1959, at Police Station Sadar Kotkapura, District Faridkot, Punjab, India." Live Events "On 09-10-2024, Gurpreet Singh, a well-known online activist, was shot dead by two assailants on a motorcycle. The deceased managed a Facebook page 'Hari Nau Talks' and had been outspoken against the Sikh radical Amritpal Singh. Shooters have been apprehended and are under investigation. "During the course of investigation, a Tinder account under the name 'Amrit Sandhu' (screenshot attached) was identified, and the account is suspected to be linked with Amritpal Singh, accused in the said FIR. The communication and analysis of data might provide evidence to the Investigating Agency relevant to the FIR," the police wrote. Tinder has been asked the subscriber details, name, date of birth, phone number, location information, and IP address logs since January 1, 2019, of the account. They also sought information on all linked e-mail IDs and phone numbers, photographs and media files uploaded by the account, friends/contacts list and mutual matches, chat history and messages exchanged via the Tinder platform and any other detail. Amritpal Singh is ann MP from the Khadoor Sahib parliamentary constituency in Punjab and is currently lodged in Assam's Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act (NSA). Amritpal, who heads the 'Waris Punjab De' outfit and has styled himself after slain Khalistani militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was jailed along with nine of his associates under the NSA. (With PTI inputs)
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Can an American pope apply US-style fundraising and standards to fix troubled Vatican finances?
As a bishop in Peru, Robert Prevost was often on the lookout for used cars that he could buy cheap and fix up himself for use in parishes around his diocese. With cars that were really broken down, he'd watch YouTube videos to learn how to fix them. That kind of make-do-with-less, fix-it-yourself mentality could serve Pope Leo XIV well as he addresses one of the greatest challenges facing him as pope: The Holy See's chronic, 50 million to 60 million euro ($57-68 million) structural deficit, 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall and declining donations that together pose something of an existential threat to the central government of the 1.4-billion strong Catholic Church . As a Chicago-born math major, canon lawyer and two-time superior of his global Augustinian religious order, the 69-year-old pope presumably can read a balance sheet and make sense of the Vatican's complicated finances, which have long been mired in scandal. Whether he can change the financial culture of the Holy See, consolidate reforms Pope Francis started and convince donors that their money is going to good use is another matter. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Promoções imperdíveis de voos baratos Voos | Anúncios de Pesquisa Saiba Mais Undo Leo already has one thing going for him: his American-ness. US donors have long been the economic life support system of the Holy See, financing everything from papal charity projects abroad to restorations of St. Peter's Basilica at home. Leo's election as the first American pope has sent a jolt of excitement through US. Catholics, some of whom had soured on donating to the Vatican after years of unrelenting stories of mismanagement, corruption and scandal, according to interviews with top Catholic fundraisers, philanthropists and church management experts. "I think the election of an American is going to give greater confidence that any money given is going to be cared for by American principles, especially of stewardship and transparency," said the Rev. Roger Landry, director of the Vatican's main missionary fundraising operation in the US, the Pontifical Mission Societies. Live Events You Might Also Like: Whoops, waves, tears: Faithful react to Pope Leo's first Sunday blessing in St. Peter's Square "So there will be great hope that American generosity is first going to be appreciated and then secondly is going to be well handled," he said. "That hasn't always been the circumstance, especially lately." Reforms and unfinished business Pope Francis was elected in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Vatican's opaque finances and made progress during his 12-year pontificate, mostly on the regulatory front. With help from the late Australian Cardinal George Pell , Francis created an economy ministry and council made up of clergy and lay experts to supervise Vatican finances, and he wrestled the Italian-dominated bureaucracy into conforming to international accounting and budgetary standards. He authorized a landmark, if deeply problematic, corruption trial over a botched London property investment that convicted a once-powerful Italian cardinal. And he punished the Vatican's Secretariat of State that had allowed the London deal to go through by stripping it of its ability to manage its own assets. But Francis left unfinished business and his overall record, at least according to some in the donor community, is less than positive. Critics cite Pell's frustrated reform efforts and the firing of the Holy See's first-ever auditor general, who says he was ousted because he had uncovered too much financial wrongdoing. You Might Also Like: Pope Leo XIV celebrates first Mass after historic election as Pope Francis' successor Despite imposing years of belt-tightening and hiring freezes, Francis left the Vatican in somewhat dire financial straits: The main stopgap bucket of money that funds budgetary shortfalls, known as the Peter's Pence, is nearly exhausted, officials say. The 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall that Pell warned about a decade ago remains unaddressed, though Francis had planned reforms. And the structural deficit continues, with the Holy See logging an 83.5 million euro ($95 million) deficit in 2023, according to its latest financial report. As Francis' health worsened, there were signs that his efforts to reform the Vatican's medieval financial culture hadn't really stuck, either. The very same Secretariat of State that Francis had punished for losing tens of millions of euros in the scandalous London property deal somehow ended up heading up a new papal fundraising commission that was announced while Francis was in the hospital. According to its founding charter and statutes, the commission is led by the Secretariat of State's assessor, is composed entirely of Italian Vatican officials with no professional fundraising expertise and has no required external financial oversight. To some Vatican watchers, the commission smacks of the Italian-led Secretariat of State taking advantage of a sick pope to announce a new flow of unchecked donations into its coffers after its 600 million euro ($684 million) sovereign wealth fund was taken away and given to another office to manage as punishment for the London fiasco. "There are no Americans on the commission. I think it would be good if there were representatives of Europe and Asia and Africa and the United States on the commission," said Ward Fitzgerald, president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation . It is made up of wealthy American Catholics that since 1990 has provided over $250 million (219 million euros) in grants and scholarships to the pope's global charitable initiatives. Fitzgerald, who spent his career in real estate private equity, said American donors - especially the younger generation - expect transparency and accountability from recipients of their money, and know they can find non-Vatican Catholic charities that meet those expectations. "We would expect transparency before we would start to solve the problem," he said. That said, Fitzgerald said he hadn't seen any significant let-up in donor willingness to fund the Papal Foundation's project-specific donations during the Francis pontificate. Indeed, U.S. donations to the Vatican overall have remained more or less consistent even as other countries' offerings declined, with U.S. bishops and individual Catholics contributing more than any other country in the two main channels to donate to papal causes. A head for numbers and background fundraising Francis moved Prevost to take over the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014. Residents and fellow priests say he consistently rallied funds, food and other life-saving goods for the neediest - experience that suggests he knows well how to raise money when times are tight and how to spend wisely. He bolstered the local Caritas charity in Chiclayo, with parishes creating food banks that worked with local businesses to distribute donated food, said the Rev. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, a diocesan spokesperson. In 2019, Prevost inaugurated a shelter on the outskirts of Chiclayo, Villa San Vicente de Paul, to house desperate Venezuelan migrants who had fled their country's economic crisis. The migrants remember him still, not only for helping give them and their children shelter, but for bringing live chickens obtained from a donor. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Prevost launched a campaign to raise funds to build two oxygen plants to provide hard-hit residents with life-saving oxygen. In 2023, when massive rains flooded the region, he personally brought food to the flood-struck zone. Within hours of his May 8 election, videos went viral on social media of Prevost, wearing rubber boots and standing in a flooded street, pitching a solidarity campaign, "Peru Give a Hand," to raise money for flood victims. The Rev. Jorge Millan, who lived with Prevost and eight other priests for nearly a decade in Chiclayo, said he had a "mathematical" mentality and knew how to get the job done. Prevost would always be on the lookout for used cars to buy for use around the diocese, Millan said, noting that the bishop often had to drive long distances to reach all of his flock or get to Lima, the capital. Prevost liked to fix them up himself, and if he didn't know what to do, "he'd look up solutions on YouTube and very often he'd find them," Millan told The Associated Press. Before going to Peru, Prevost served two terms as prior general, or superior, of the global Augustinian order. While the order's local provinces are financially independent, Prevost was responsible for reviewing their balance sheets and oversaw the budgeting and investment strategy of the order's headquarters in Rome, said the Rev. Franz Klein, the order's Rome-based economist who worked with Prevost. The Augustinian campus sits on prime real estate just outside St. Peter's Square and supplements revenue by renting out its picturesque terrace to media organizations (including the AP) for major Vatican events, including the conclave that elected Leo pope. But even Prevost saw the need for better fundraising, especially to help out poorer provinces. Toward the end of his 12-year term and with his support, a committee proposed creation of a foundation, Augustinians in the World. At the end of 2023, it had 994,000 euros ($1.13 million) in assets and was helping fund self-sustaining projects across Africa, including a center to rehabilitate former child soldiers in Congo. "He has a very good interest and also a very good feeling for numbers," Klein said. "I have no worry about the finances of the Vatican in these years because he is very, very clever."
