TikTok videos inside Golden Temple banned
Amritsar, Feb 10: The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has prohibited making TikTok videos inside the Golden Temple in the wake of such videos showing the visitors dancing and playing songs, going viral on social media.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex religious body of Sikhs, on Saturday pasted posters inside the Golden Temple complex, warning devotees not to shoot TikTok videos inside the Harmandir Sahib.
"TikTok is prohibited here," read one such poster.
The move comes a day after Giani Harpreet Singh, head priest of the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, had said banning mobile phones inside the Golden Temple complex would have to be "thought over" if visitors continued to shoot TikTok videos inside the holiest Sikh shrine.
TikTok is a short-video platform which is extremely popular among youngsters globally, including India. Owned by China-based ByteDance, it has about 200 million users in India.
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"We want all devotees to visit the Golden Temple without any hassle and are not in favour of imposing any such (mobile) ban, but the way the incidents of TikTok are surfacing, I think imposing the ban on carrying mobile phones inside (Golden Temple) will have to be pondered over in the future," Jathedar had told reporters in Amritsar on Friday.
The
Jathedar
(head
priest)
had
also
pointed
out
that
some
of
the
devotees
even
argued
with
'sewadars'
(workers)
upon
being
stopped
from
clicking
photos
inside
the
premises.
Photography
and
videography
in
the
precincts
of
the
Golden
Temple
have
already
been
banned
by
the
SGPC
to
avoid
any
"disturbance"
to
the
spiritual
atmosphere.
A few days ago, a TikTok video shot inside the temple by three girls with a Punjabi song playing in the background had gone viral on social media, prompting the SGPC to take a stern view.
It
was
the
second
such
incident
in
a
short
span
of
time
as
in
January,
a
police
complaint
was
lodged
against
a
girl
for
hurting
religious
sentiments
of
Sikhs
after
she
shot
a
dance
video
inside
the
Darbar
Sahib
complex.
Later,
the
girl
had
to
apologise.