Gurdwara Bill adopted by Mann government might violate autonomy of Sikh dynamics but SGPC should launch own channel

 

Gurdwara Bill violates  autonomy of Sikh dynamics but SGPC must launch own channel

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

Chandigarh: Apparently, there is nothing wrong with the enactment of Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill 2023 in the Punjab Assembly on June 20, 2023 to end monopoly rights to telecast Gurbani live from sanctum sanctorum of Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple), the centre of Sikh Faith. This issue of monopoly rights has been raised over the years in the Sikh religio-political domain.

Presently, the GNext that owns PTC group of channels has the monopoly rights. This company is owned by the House of Badals, now headed by Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal. The management of Darbar Sahib complex is with the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee that is dominated by this party.

The issue is that of encroachment on the jurisdiction of the SGPC which is a statutory body constituted under the Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925 in the name of amendment to this Act. The members to the general house of this mini-Parliament of the Sikhs are elected by the Sikhs enrolled as the voters for which qualifications have been laid down. It is thus a parallel Assembly. Over the years, both tradition and practice defined its area of jurisdiction, apart from the functioning demarcated under the Act.

It is for this reason that the state government should have desisted from adopting this amendment. The chief minister could have made suggestions to the SGPC president on universal access to Gurbani telecast. It is for the SGPC to decide as to how to make live telecast of Gurbani accessible to the people at large. Of course, the decision to authorise only one channel to telecast Gurbani has been questioned by the Sikhs over the years. The corrective could have been applied only by the SGPC and not the state government.

The SGPC that was set up as a voluntary Sikh body on November 15, 1920 attained statutory status with enactment of Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925 by the Punjab Legislative Council, as the Assembly was then called. This Act came under jurisdiction of Parliament under the Punjab Re-organisation Act, 1966.

The yesterday’s amendment is not so simple an issue as it has far reaching implications in the Sikh religio-political matrix, and ultimately the political discourse in general. This amendment questions the very autonomy of Sikh dynamics.  Any amendment can be enacted only on the recommendation of the general house of the SGPC, although there is no such legal binding. This is what constitutes autonomy of Sikh dynamics.

It is in this backdrop that Tuesday’s amendment is direct interference in the religious affairs of the Sikhs.

The SGPC is associated with unprecedented Sikh struggles beginning 1920 and this autonomy is rooted in these struggles. According to one estimate, about 500 Sikh activists died while hundreds of others went to jail and suffered extreme torture during the period 1920 to 1925.

The amendment is violative of that spirit.

Of course, there is nothing wrong technically with this amendment.

However, this unprecedented situation, however, could have been averted.

This situation could have been averted in case the House of Badals had made the announcement to withdraw from live telecast of Gurbani by the PTC channels.

This could have been averted if the SGPC had made the announcement to start its own channel and distribute the signals to the channels interested in this telecast on conditions prescribed by it.

It is pertinent to mention that the Shiromani Akali Dal in its manifesto for SGPC general house election in 2004 had promised that the SGPC would launch its own channel for live telecast of Gurbani.

Not only that. Akal Takht acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh last year had directed the SGPC to take this initiative. Nothing has happened.

It is being said that the contract with PTC would end in July and tenders would be floated.

That is not the issue.

The basic issue is that of SGPC launching its own channel.

Intriguingly, neither the SGPC nor the Akali leaders who yesterday questioned the authority of the state government to enact this legislation talked of floating own channel. The Akali Dal should have read its own manifesto of 2004. The party must tell the Sikhs as to why this promise was not kept.

There is no denying the fact that the 1925 Act needs to be updated and amendments have been carried out from time to time but mainly on recommendation from the SGPC, except that of reserving 30 seats for women in 1996. The Centre made this reservation through notification but being a progressive step, the SGPC leadership did not question it.

Some amendments were proposed in 1999. Not only amendments, the third draft of All India Gurdwara Bill too was circulated by the union home ministry. However, nothing till date of known as to what happened after that.

The year 1999 is crucial in the Sikh religio-political dynamics in the context of autonomy of the Akal Takht and the SGPC. Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra, who had lorded over the SGPC since 1973, had to exit unceremoniously following differences with then chief minister and Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal. This dilution of these two highest Sikh institutions started after that.

The extreme was questionable role of these two institutions during the Bargari sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib narrative. All the three institutions, the third being the Akali Dal, suffered irreparable damage.

It is not that the only Bhagwant Mann government is the one to interfere in the autonomy of Sikh dynamics.

However, there is another dimension.

Mann mentioned in the Assembly while piloting the Bill that the elections to the general house of the SGPC were overdue  and thus the present house was illegal.

The house, once elected, continues till the next election as per the Act although its term is five years. The Mann government should have amended the 1925 Act to ensure elections after completion of the five year term like the Assembly.

The problem with the Akali Dal is that the party is now too weak to  react strongly. Moreover, many of the leaders in private favour end to monopoly telecast. Its legislature party leader Manpreet Singh Ayali yesterday went public and said in Assembly that he himself was against monopoly rights and that the SGPC should start its own channel.

That exactly is the issue.

This announcement should have come from the SGPC.

All the more important, however, is restoration of autonomy of Akal Takht and the SGPC.

The only way out is early elections to the general house of the SGPC.