Punjab Cabinet nod to alter Act for Gurbani broadcast

Tribune News Service

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, June 19

The Punjab Cabinet today approved the Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Act, 2023, paving the way for eliminating the “undue control by modern-day masands” over the free telecast of sacred Gurbani.

Addressing the media after a meeting, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said the Cabinet had approved an amendment to The Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, to insert Section 125A, which will “ensure free live telecast of Gurbani from the Golden Temple”.

He said the amendment had been made so that “the entire humanity could listen and see the live telecast of Gurbani free of cost”. He said the move was aimed at ensuring that Gurbani was not commercialised in any manner.

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The Chief Minister said the Act would be called the Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Act, 2023, and would come into force with effect from the date of its publication in the official Gazette. He said in the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, Section 125A would be inserted after Section 125. He said the Act stipulated that it would be the duty of the SGPC to propagate the teachings of the Gurus by making uninterrupted (without any on-screen running advertisements/ commercials/ distortion) live feed (audio or audio as well as video) of Gurbani from the Golden Temple available free to all media houses, outlets, platforms, channels etc. whoever wishes to broadcast it.

Mann said that as a devout Sikh, he is a votary of free telecast of Gurbani across the globe. Mann wondered how this was an attack on the Panth as he was just opposing the control of a particular channel over the telecast of Gurbani.

He said that this move was not aimed at giving rights to any particular channel of the government or of any single individual, but it is aimed at spreading the message of Gurbani across the globe.

The Chief Minister asserted that the state government is fully competent to amend this Act as the apex court had already — through a judgment — ruled that this Act is not an interstate one.

He alleged that a single family had dominated the affairs of the SGPC for long due to which irreparable damage had been caused to the Sikh Panth. Mann alleged that this family tried to encash on the religious sentiments of Sikhs by giving exclusive rights of telecast of Gurbani to their blue-eyed channel when no mention of word ‘telecast’ or ‘broadcast’ was there in the Act.

The Chief Minister said that as people wish to listen to Gurbani from the Golden Temple, they had to subscribe to that channel. However, he said, the package of this channel is given along with other channels and it is too expensive.

Mann bemoaned that Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, which was constituted by The Sikh Gurdwaras Act 1925, was entrusted with the task of spreading the message of Gurbani, but it has forgotten its duty. It was acting as a stooge in the hands of a family, he alleged.

Mann said that the Act is not an attack on the Panth but a humble effort to ensure free telecast of Gurbani across the globe.

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