He said that since its inception in 1699, the Khalsa Panth had made concerted efforts to improve the quality of human life and would continue doing so.

Delivering his presidential address, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Gurcharan Singh Tohra, appealed to politicians and intellectuals to shun their egos and join hands to make the Khalsa tercentenary celebrations a big success.

Tohra called upon the intellectuals to come forward to help the Sikhs by presenting the principles of Sikhism in the right perspective.

Prithipal Singh Kapur, editor-in-chief of the encyclopedia on Sikhism, delivered the keynote address on the futuristic vision of Sikhism.

Earlier, Vice-Chancellor of the university, Joginder Singh Puar said that the state government, SGPC, and the sant samaj had drafted many programmes to celebrate 300 years of the birth of the Khalsa Panth.

He said that the university had planned to publish 42 books on the occasion, 16 of which were complete. The university has also started construction work at Damdama Sahib and had spent a sum of Rs 1.5 crore on the work without getting any special grant from any quarter, he added.

Puar said that the university had started a crash course in Punjabi and 20 Sikhs had come to learn the language from USA.

On this occasion, five books were released by Yogi Harbhajan Singh and Tohra.