Amid SGPC opposition, CM Bhagwant Mann says will bring law for free Gurbani telecast rights

The government plans to bring the amendment in the Cabinet on Monday and then take the legislation to the assembly.

Meanwhile, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami in a tweet cautioned the CM saying that Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, is a Centre’s Act. He told the CM that he was talking about adding a section to the Act by bringing an amendment but he was not aware of the procedure of the amendment. He said that this could be done by the Centre in the Lok Sabha after consulting the SGPC, which is an elected body of the Sikhs. Adding that the telecast of the Gurbani is not an ordinary one, Dhami asked the CM not to mislead the people as it is sacrosanct.

The amendment would hit former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s family as the exclusive rights of telecasting Gurbani is so far with the Punjabi television network, PTC.

In May, Mann had hit out at the Akalis when he questioned the rationale of the monopoly of telecast. The CM had also questioned the rationale behind extending the rights to telecast Gurbani from Sachkhand Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar to only one channel.

He had said that the state government was ready to bear all the expenditure to install high-end techniques so that Gurbani can be telecast on all channels, free of cost. Mann, however, never named PTC channel.

Mann had only said that the need of the hour is to disseminate the ‘Sarb Sanjhi Gurbani’ across the globe with an aim to spread the universal message of ‘Sarbat da Bhala’ (welfare of all). He had said that it is strange that only one channel has been given exclusive rights for the telecast of Gurbani from Darbar Sahib. He had also said that these rights should be given free of cost to all the channels rather than confining it to a single channel.

The Chief Minister had also said that this endeavour would go a long way in offering an opportunity to the Sangat to listen to the blissful Gurbani while sitting at their homes even abroad. Likewise, he said that it will also allow the people to have a glimpse (darshan didar) Harmandar Sahib on their TV sets or other gadgets.

Earlier too, Dhami had replied to the CM that the SGPC was capable of handling the affairs of gurdwaras. He had asked the CM not to create suspicion in the minds of the Sangat by tweeting on such issues. He had reminded the CM that jurisdictions of the governments and the religious affairs were different. He said that as far as the government was concerned it was found wanting on projects it should have handled. He told the CM that the heritage corridor outside the Golden Temple was in bad shape, the road leading to the religious place was also in bad shape. He said the money possessed by the government was people’s money and it should be spent on projects and the CM should not create suspicion among the minds of people by talking about spending money on telecast of Gurbani.

The issue of telecast of Gurbani was raised by former Congress government in the state led by Amarinder Singh in the assembly. The Assembly had passed a resolution in November 2019, during a special session to celebrate 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, appealing to the president of SGPC to free the telecast.

The resolution was moved by the then Cabinet minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa. He had later written to SGPC president maintaining that the Punjab Assembly at its special session dedicated to 550th anniversary celebrations on November 6 had adopted a unanimous resolution appealing to the SGPC to facilitate free signal to all the channels. The SGPC should take over the telecast itself and provide free signal to each and every channel willing to telecast the same under the prescribed framework and guidelines.

He had stated that the SGPC had no right to either confine the transmission to only one channel or charge for the same.