Punjab Assembly clears AAP government’s bill for free Gurbani telecast from Golden Temple

 Punjab,June 20 : The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday passed the Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023, to ensure free telecast of Gurbani from Sri Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple) in Amritsar. The Bill is aimed at making the broadcast and telecast of Gurbani free for all, and does away with the need for tenders.

The move has a political side too. The channel that has the rights to telecast Gurbani from the Golden Temple belongs to the Badals, the first family of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

Gurbani is a term commonly used by Sikhs to refer to various compositions by the Sikh Gurus and other writers of Guru Granth Sahib.

On Monday, the Punjab Cabinet approved an amendment to the British-era Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, to ensure free-to-air telecast of Gurbani from Amritsar’s Golden Temple.

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For years, a private news-cum-entertainment channel has had the broadcasting rights of Gurbani, which takes place at the Golden Temple. Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal has a stake in the channel.

The amendment will try to break the monopoly of a Badal-owned TV channel over telecast rights. The Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Act, 2023, will pave the way for eliminating the undue control of preachers (called Masands).

By this amendment, Section 125A is being inserted in the Act to cast duty on the SGPC to ensure free-to-air, live telecast of Gurbani from the Golden Temple.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex religious body of the Sikhs, had contested the move by the AAP-led Punjab government, saying the 1925 Act is a central legislation and can only be amended by Parliament.

However, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday said the state government was fully competent to amend this Act. He reasoned that the Supreme Court had, on the issue of a separate gurdwara committee for Haryana, ruled that this Act was not an inter-state Act, but a state Act.

It has been reported that the channel pays Rs 2 crore annually to the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee for Gurbani telecast rights. Media reports said the contract for Gurbani telecast was ending next month and the SGPC was in the process of renewing it.

-PTI