Filming Tiktok Videos and Clicking Selfies Gets Banned in the Golden Temple

The Golden Temple of Amritsar which is said to be the holiest shrine of the Sikhs has recently forbidden people from filming TikTok videos and clicking selfies inside the temple premises.

Tik Tok and the Ruckus Around It

TikTok, owned by the ByteDance, is a China-based social video sharing app which is immensely popular in India, especially youth, as the country has about 200 million users. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), an administrative unit of Amritsar's Golden Temple has initialised this ban as objections were raised by the devotees on surfacing the videos on social media platforms. Hence, the management curtailed the visitors from using the app in the temple.

Jaswinder Singh, manager of  Harmandir Saheb said, "We appeal to devotees coming here to refrain from such activities as it is a place of worship". Notices that read "TikTok is prohibited here" were put up by the management. 

Click here to watch the Golden Temple Tik Tok Video!

The Reason Behind the Ban!

Recently, Giani Harpreet Singh, Jathedar (head priest) of the Akal Takht- stated, "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".

This initiative of prohibiting TikTok is taken because of the recurrent incidents that took place in the precincts of the temple. A Tik Tok video of three girls dancing on a Punjabi song in the temple complex went viral, and also a police complaint was filed against a girl after she shot a video inside the Darbar Sahib as it had hurt the religious sentiments of the devotees. These videos were viewed by the management, prompting them to take action against these types of activities.

Earlier, SGPC did prohibit people from photography and filming videos, but the implementation was not strict. However, frequent incidents forced the management to swing into action, and the employees of the Golden Temple were told to be more vigilant. 

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