During the turbulent 1980s, the live telecast of the Gurbani from the precincts of Sri Harmandir Sahib – famously known as the Golden Temple – at Amritsar by All India Radio or AIR was one of the outstanding demands by the Shiromani Akali Dal. At least two governors of Punjab during this period of turmoil— Arjun Singh, a diehard politician, and veteran civil services officer Bhairab Dutt Pande — were agreeable to the idea of accepting this demand and using it to douse the embers of agitation.
However, this demand, as well as the renaming of ‘Flying Mail’ as the ‘Golden Temple Express’, was not accepted by the Union government until after the 1984 Operation Blue Star. In retrospect, had this demand been accepted and the state agencies – AIR and Doordarshan (DD) – taken up the live transmission, the recent insertion of section 125 A to the (Punjab) Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925 would not have been required. This section makes it incumbent upon the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to ensure ‘free-to-air’ live telecast of the Gurbani from the Golden Temple. While the ‘free-to-air’ demand appears innocuous, the real intent is to break the monopoly of the Badal family-controlled PTC TV channel, which has enjoyed exclusive rights to the live broadcast for the past 11 years.
Understanding the historical context
Although it is highly unlikely that Governor Banwari Lal Purohit will give his immediate clearance to the Bill, steered in the Punjab assembly by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann last month, it is important to understand the historical context of this Act. It is especially important to focus on the transitional provisions under Section 72 of the Reorganisation of Punjab Act 1966, which authorises the central government to give directions on certain matters relating to SGPC and Sikh Gurdwaras.
The Narendra Modi government used this provision in 2016 to exclude Sehajdharis (non-turbaned adherents of the Guru Granth Sahib) from the electoral college of Sikh Gurdwaras retrospectively from 2003. Modi’s BJP was then in alliance with the Badals’ SAD. Then, in September 2022, the Supreme Court held as ‘valid’ the powers of the Haryana assembly to legislate on matters relating to Sikh shrines in the state.
In 1971, the Indira Gandhi-led government had issued an ordinance to manage Sikh Gurdwaras of the Union Territory of Delhi. In 1999, the All India Gurdwara Bill was drafted by Chief Justice (retd) Harbans Singh on which the SGPC and Akali Dal have had an ambivalent stand. Last but not least, we have to reckon with the ‘extra-constitutional assurances’ given to the Akali Dal leadership by political helmsmen: from Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, the Premier of undivided Punjab, in 1942 to Baldev Singh, India’s first defence Minister in 1947 and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1959 with Master Tara Singh, then-head of SGPC. The term ‘extra constitutional’ is used with care and caution because these commitments were not backed by legislative action or even a gazette notification – leaving it open for ‘wi(l)dest’ possible interpretation by the Akali Dal (when in opposition).
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The Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925
But first, the 1925 Act of the Government of Punjab received approval from the Governor General of India, implying that even about a hundred years ago, the pan-India implications of this state legislation were quite clearly understood. It was this Act that recognised SGPC as the representative body of Sikhs, then concentrated primarily in undivided Punjab, whose boundaries extended from Gurgaon (now Gurugram) to Dera Ghazi Khan (in Pakistani Punjab), a town bordering the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
The SGPC was established in 1920 to wrest control of the Gurdwaras from the udasi mahants (hereditary officials) in an agitation that saw 65,000 arrests and over 400 deaths. It was these udasi mahants who offered a siropa (robe of honour) to Reginald Dyer, the General responsible for the massacre of innocent pilgrims gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh on Baisakhi (13 April) in 1919, thereby shaking the conscience of the nation. When the keys of the Golden Temple were handed over to Baba Kharak Singh, then SGPC chief, on 19 January 1922, MK Gandhi sent him a wire saying: “First decisive battle for India’s freedom won.”
Over the past hundred years, SGPC has had its share of successes, challenges and controversies. It was the nerve centre of the movement for the control of Gurdwaras in pre–Independent India and later for creating a Punjabi Suba in the 1960s. It was at the forefront of several agitations for implementing the Anandpur Sahib Resolution in 1973, which asked to recognise Sikhism as a religion separate from Hinduism, demanded more autonomy for Punjab, as well as more power for state governments.
The SGPC also articulated the political demands of SAD. Its budget, as of Financial Year 2023-2024, is a little more than Rs 1,100 crore per annum, and it controls the Golden Temple and the Akal Takht (the chief seat of Sikh religious authority) in Amritsar. It also controls two other Takhts in Punjab – namely, Keshgarh Sahib at Anandpur Sahib and Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Sabo. The Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) and the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) also have Rs 200 and Rs 150 crore budgets, respectively.
Therefore, the control over this purse is also a contentious issue. More so because elections to these bodies (except for DSGMC) are not held as per schedule; elections to SGPC have not been held for the last 11 years, and ever since its inception, the Haryana body has been ‘ad-hoc’. It may also be mentioned that there are approximately 15 lakh Sikhs in Haryana, Chandigarh, and Himachal Pradesh, and 6 lakh in Delhi, but they are thinly spread against the 1.6 crore Sikhs in Punjab. The total Sikh population in the country is approximately 2 crore, but there are many more who have faith in the Guru Granth Sahib and visit the Gurdwaras regularly.
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The All-India Gurdwara Act
While SGPC and SAD make occasional noises about the enactment of the All India Gurdwara Act as per the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, they also realise that an all-India Act may dilute their hold over the Gurdwara politics of Punjab, as core support for SAD and SGPC comes from the Jat Sikhs who dominate the Majha and Malwa belt in the state. Gurdwara elections have always been keenly contested in Delhi, where the Sikh Khatri lobby is quite strong. Moreover, the Akalis do not exercise political power outside of Punjab, unless they align with the BJP.
Therefore, even though former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal did establish a ‘high-powered committee’ comprising former Justices, prominent lawyers, and academics for the All-India Gurdwara Act, there was little follow-up action. Dissident members of the Akali Dal, such as former SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur, have said that the SGPC should free itself from the ‘monopolistic hold’ of the Badals, emerge as a representative body of the Sikhs and take steps to ensure the direct broadcast of Gurbani, even as she challenged the authority of CM Mann to amend the 1925 Act.
Thus, there is much more than meets the eye in the present imbroglio in Punjab. Mann has stirred the hornet’s nest, and the outcome is unpredictable.
Sanjeev Chopra is a former IAS officer and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Until recently, he was Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He tweets @ChopraSanjeev. Views are personal.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)