As devotees walk through Heritage Street of Amritsar, the sound of melodious Gurbani kirtans (sacred hymns) fill the air. This is one of the oldest streets of the city and is lined with shops. Thousands throng the no-traffic zone, which leads to the Golden Temple. Gurbani kirtans are sung when the portals of the temple are open in the wee hours of morning. The singing stops when the portals close during the evening. The hymns are sung by Sikh clerics sitting in the gilded complex of the temple. Today, the Gurbani is at the centre of a political controversy in Punjab.
On June 20, 2023, the Punjab government passed the Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill. Through the Bill, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led government is seeking to amend the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, which was enacted for the administration of certain Sikh gurdwaras in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Chandigarh. The government’s aim is to ensure that the broadcast and telecast of the Gurbani from the Golden Temple is free for all channels. The rights up until this point lay with G-Next Media Private Limited, which runs PTC Punjabi, a channel in which Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal has a majority stake. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said that the Bill aimed to ensure that there was no undue control of a “particular family” over the rights to telecast the Gurbani.
On June 26, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex governing body of all the Sikh gurdwaras in India and abroad, rejected the Bill. An angry SGPC said it would not tolerate “the Punjab government’s interference in the Sikh Gurdwaras Act”. Terming the move unconstitutional and politically motivated, it asked the government to withdraw the Bill or be ready to face an “intensified struggle”.
