The Panthic Weekly
Writing by shinda on Friday, 27 of January , 2006
Panthic.org is a new and upcoming Sikhi news site, which has been doing a tremendous sevaa, especially in the West, featuring many original articles and news breaking exposes. Some of the big ones to date include the breaking of the Daljeet Singh (Chicago), story which was then later picked up by others, and more recently the story on Rulda, an RSS agent who supposedly infiltrated main stream Sikh groups, with audio evidence and all.
Before Panthic Weekly arrived, the main sources for many people looking for Panthic News, was The Tribune and for western happenings, Sanjh Savera. The later, being a Punjabi only paper that left many youth who can’t read punjabi scratching their heads.
So it goes without saying that what Panthic Weekly is doing is an awesome thing, and we can only wait for it to grow, hoping that it one day becomes biweekly, until one day when it features updates everday.
However, such growth does not come without suffering growing pains. A recent thread on the Sikhi Unleashed forums suggested or at least left, what I would think was positive criticism. Unfortunately some of those connected with Panthic Weekly or supporters of it felt such criticism was insulting, which is pretty sad considering all of it was valid.
Basically the main points raised by Simmal Tree, were all surrounding the recent expose on Rulda (The RSS agent) and how the paper is starting to look like a Tabloid versus a credible impartial news paper.
for example, there is no use of the word ALLEGED. all of the rulda’s statements are allegations, but the article does not use the word alleged or “claimed” and therefore they seem to be truth.
secondly, there is no use of quotations. so things that rulda specifically said are mixed with things that the editors wrote, leaving readers to wonder what are ultimately the facts.
thirdly, bold red text is used to emphasize that sant baba thakur singh ji is alleged to have given a siropa to the head of the rss in the form of a shawl. firstly, the bold red is for what type of dramatic effect? there is no taste in that - it is only for the shock effect, and it is not needed. secondly, it is an allegation, not a statement of truth. and lastly, if this really did happen, then panthic weekly should have done some homework to try to find out why this happened, and get some type of justification out of representatives of the taksal or people who did seva with baba ji.
fourth, baba ji’s picture is placed right next to the rss cheif’s picture, as if both are some culprits in some master plot. the purposeful arrangement of the whole article makes it look like a propaganda article rather than a news article.
Now, I don’t see anything wrong being said, and off course everyone is entitled to there opinion. Supporters of Panthic Weekly provided rebuttals, to the above points of concern, and rightfully so cleared up much of the above up from the Panthic Weekly perspective.
One thing that was mentioned however, that seemed somewhat curious, was a remark by The Avenger,
If you have some concerns about Panthic Weekly or criticism you should send those directly to Panthic Weekly. What do you think?”I beleive you can get their email from the website: www.panthic.org
Now for a paper so keen on releasing the truth, it seems questionable as to why they would object to people taking offense to an article, or let alone express there views and provide certain criticism on a public forum, after all if Panthic Weekly is out for the truth, then it should always be ready to defend itself and justify itself without worry, after all if they didn’t, then they themselves would be going against the one practice they feel they examiplify, that being making things transparent for the public/sangat.
Also in defending itself as a paper without Jatha bias, supporters on the forum made note that no one doing wrong is safe and I agree 100%, anyone doing wrong should be pointed out. They quickly made note that AKJI has also been singled out, however one thing I noticed while looking at that article was the editorial note that seemingly gave the AKJ perspective on the issue or at least the individual. Leading me to wonder why no such feedback was sought from the other groups mentioned on what they had to say about things and also why the editors felt it nessary to clarify such information.
Also in replying to Simmal Tree’s third point about the bold red text, (trying to sensationalize the article), supporters pointed out that it was more to do with the outrageous remarks made by Rulda, then to show Baba Takhur Singh in a negative light. However many other statements made by Rulda were just as outrageous, yet none of these received the same treatment of bold text, and highlighting, which can only lead one to feel that a certain bias is at play.
So clearly Panthic Weekly has ways to go, and things that it needs to sort out if it wish’s to truly become a Panthic paper. It has made many positive strides in the small time that it has been around, but it should quickly sort these little things out now if it wants to continue with its success.
Akhooo Satnaaam Sri Vaaheguroo Jeee
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G from 
Made Friday, 27 of January , 2006 at 3:26 pm
to act as if there is no jatha bias is a joke. The panthic weekly supporters tried to prove there is no bias by saying that their article showed akjI in a bad light.
not akj, but akj internaional.
2 oranizations that have already split due to suspected RSS involvment.
Many people already know that AKJ and AKJI dont have the strongest of relationships, and many would argue that many members of AKJ have a negative attitude towards AKJ international. Many jatha members do not consider AKJi as part of the jatha, and openly say that AKJi is infiltrated.
so using the point that saying something about akjI proves that panthic weekly isnt jatha biased, is absurd.
But still, 99% of the work panthic weekly does is illl.
Anonymous from
Made Friday, 27 of January , 2006 at 4:19 pm
i agree 100% there doing a good job, but have to be careful not to let biases come in, and not to add their own slant on issues. this will jsut undermine the credibility of the paper.
Anonymous from
Made Saturday, 28 of January , 2006 at 3:48 pm
they probably made the part about baba takhur singh in red because to be honest that was the *biggest* shock so far. i dont think anyone can doubt that.
Anonymous from
Made Saturday, 28 of January , 2006 at 9:44 pm
But spilling emotion into your writing is not a good trait for a journalist.
Shock writing is the work of tabloids and Gossip columns.
Not real newspapers.
tru dat tru dat
Anonymous from
Made Monday, 30 of January , 2006 at 7:53 pm
its also slightly anti panthic to call baba harnaam singh the ddt mukhi or jathedar which panthic weekly has done at least once , or more times.. theyre good otherwise but yea
Anonymous from
Made Thursday, 2 of February , 2006 at 3:07 am
great job Sikhs outside india most of whome are young. 1 panth 1 granth
Anonymous from
Made Thursday, 9 of February , 2006 at 1:02 pm
Why does rulda not state what was discussed at those meetings?
Nor does Panthic weekly state what these meeting were held for?
