Why the Gurbani telecast row is set to play out into the near future in Punjab

As the 2024 parliamentary elections approach, this clash could prove a decisive factor in Punjab.

The first face-off is expected five days from now. Criticising the government’s move as “anti-Sikh”, SGPC president Harjinder S Dhami tweeted Tuesday night: “This move by the Punjab government will be answered at all levels, for which a special general session of SGPC has been called on June 26 at Teja Singh Samari Hall to decide the outline.”

The channel

Gurbani was first broadcast live on the All India Radio on June 7, 1984, the day after the Army concluded Operation Blue Star. It had been a long-standing demand of the Dharam Yudh Morcha – formed essentially over the SYL water dispute, with Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale part of it — but was accepted only after the Army action, which caused significant damage to the Akal Takht and outraged the Sikh community.

After that, live Gurbani Kirtan on radio became an integral part of mornings and evenings in Punjab. The telecast of the same began in the late 90s.

Launched in 2007 with Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal as the majority stakeholder, PTC got the sole rights to broadcast Gurbani live from the Golden Temple around that year, in an arrangement. Legally, this would fall into place only in 2012. The Badals were in power in the state from 2007 to 2017, having won back-to-back in a rarity for Punjab’s politics.

Since it started telecasting the Gurbani, it has remained PTC’s biggest asset, ensuring no drop in its viewership even when the Badals were out of power. During Amarinder Singh’s first term as Congress Chief Minister from 2002 to 2007, his government was accused of favouring Punjab Today news channel. However, Punjab Today ceased operations as soon as the Akali Dal formed a coalition government with the BJP in 2007.

For many years, the Gurbani telecast on PTC in the morning was followed by promotional songs of Nanhi Chhaan, an NGO working on girl child welfare that is associated with Sukhbir’s wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Before coming to power, one of Mann’s and the AAP’s main poll promises was a probe into the Badal family business operations. However, while the AAP government has proceeded against many former Congress MLAs and ministers, it has so far failed to substantiate most of the allegations against the Badals. The blow against PTC will provide some relief to the AAP government from the charge that it is deliberately not acting against the Akali Dal.

On the AAP government’s move, PTC Managing Director Rabindra Narayan said its claims that it would “make Gurbani free” were misleading. “Gurbani is already free. All PTC Network channels are designated as free-to-air by the Government of India. No cable operator or DTH operator charges any money. It is also available for free on YouTube and Facebook… We challenge the entire Cabinet to provide a single customer bill where anyone has had to pay to subscribe to Gurbani across the country,” tweeted Narayan, while announcing a reward of Rs 1 crore to anyone who proved him false.

The SGPC angle

The AAP has articulated a narrative of the SGPC leadership finding itself “defenceless” around the issue of the telecast of Gurbani on PTC.

The SGPC is responsible for the management of most of the Sikh places of worship, particularly the Golden Temple, and the Akali Dal’s primacy in Punjab politics has rested to a large extent on its control over the body. Criticism of this tight relationship between the two has been growing within not just the SGPC but also the Akali Dal’s own ranks.

Many leaders who have rebelled against the Badals and left the Akali Dal in the last five years have accused the family of “misusing” the SGPC. A former Badal loyalist, Bibi Jagir Kaur, who recently contested SGPC elections against an “official” candidate, told The Indian Express: “People don’t want to see the Badals… Their problem is with the face of the Badals regularly appearing on PTC throughout the day. The SGPC should just launch its own channel, as directed by the Akal Takht.”

The political impact

There was one surprise supporter of Mann on the Gurbani issue: the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) leadership, which is considered close to the BJP. In a statement, Manjit Singh Bhoma, the chairman of the Delhi Dharma Prachar Committee Punjab, said they fully welcomed the decision to make Gurbani from Golden Temple free-to-air, “respecting the sentiments of the Sikh community”.

Haryana Gurdwara Management Committee founder member Baljit Singh Dadduwal also expressed his gratitude. “We may have ideological differences with anyone, but when any government, organisation or person makes decisions in favour of the religion and sect, we welcome them above political differences,” Dadduwal said.

The Haryana Sikh body is also considered close to the BJP.

Both Bhoma and Dadduwal have interests in the SGPC. Other voices silent on the issue are expected to speak up as well, hopeful that the clash between the AAP and Badals will create a space for them to capture the SGPC. Speculation is rife now about the Punjab government pushing for SGPC elections, even if it means collision with the current leadership of the Sikh body.

Even without that, the AAP government measure is expected to polarise the anti-Badal vote ahead of the general elections due next year.

This coincides with the weakening of the Akali Dal, which was decimated in the Assembly elections last year and no longer has the lasting popularity of the late Parkash Singh Badal to lean on. Lately, it has been making overtures for a return to the BJP, its long-term ally that it broke away from over the farm laws.

Politically, barring Sunil Jakhar, the BJP has been cautious and not taken a stand on the Gurbani issue.

Long-term ramifications

Many anti-Badal leaders like Bibi Jagir Kaur and traditional rivals of the Badals like the radical Dal Khalsa are also cautious as far as the Gurbani decision goes. Their antagonism towards the Badals notwithstanding, they fear that the new law may hurt the Sikhs in the long term by opening the door for governments to take decisions for the community without consulting its elected leadership.

“I support the view that there should not be any monopoly in Gurbani telecast, but rather than finding a solution for the same, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mannji is deliberately challenging the sovereignty of the SGPC by suggesting an amendment to the Sikh Gurdwara Act, which is neither justified nor in his authority,” Manjinder Singh Sirsa, former DSGMC president and BJP leader said, adding that Mann was acting on the instructions of AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, “who wants to create a ruckus in the state”.

In its statement, the Dal Khalsa said: “Sukhbir Singh Badal has amassed enough wealth courtesy of the sole rights to Gurbani Live telecast on PTC. Now is the right time for Sukhbir to pay back to Guru’s Sangat. The Badals have made the SGPC subservient, thus destroying its credibility and relevance. The situation has reached a point when a Patit Sikh (read Bhagwant Mann) has dared to play with the religious emotions of the Sikh. Everyone who matters in Punjab knows that the state government has no power or authority to build new laws or bring any amendment to the existing Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925, let alone the Chief Minister.”