Chandigarh: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami on Monday strongly objected to an animation video created using AI by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, which features the Tenth Guru, Sri Guru Gobind Singh, and the Sahibzadas.
Dhami has demanded that the video be taken down immediately and has urged the government to take the strictest possible action against it.
The SGPC president said that the history of Sikh Gurus and Sikh personalities is a sacred and inviolable heritage, and no individual has the right to distort or misrepresent it. He emphasised that no film or animation depicting the Gurus or their families can be created, as the SGPC has already passed resolutions imposing a complete ban on such portrayals.
He added that, aside from historical inaccuracies, the inclusion of AI-generated visuals depicting the Sikh Gurus in Dhruv Rathee’s video has hurt religious sentiments of Sikh community. Such portrayals violate Sikh principles and traditions, as in Sikhi, the Gurus, Sahibzadas, and their families cannot be represented in human form or in films. Therefore, this YouTuber has acted in contradiction to Sikh tenets.
Slamming Rathee for the video, the SGPC general secretary Gurcharan Singh Grewal said that the Sikh community does not require AI-generated content to understand or preserve their history.
Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal also condemned the video and said that portrayals violate the Sikh `rehat maryada’, which prohibits visual representations of Gurus and have deeply hurt the sentiments of the community.
