Opinion | Amarinder Singh’s blasphemy law can have disastrous consequences in Punjab

Ashutosh Kumar

The Amarinder Singh-led Congress government in Punjab has decided to introduce a bill in the forthcoming assembly session to amend the Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2016 to make sacrilege of religious scriptures punishable by life imprisonment.

The amended part would include Section 295 AA in the IPC to make sacrilege punishable for desecration of not only the Guru Granth Sahib, as was the case with the earlier bill passed by the Shiromani Akali Dal government, but also include the scriptures of other religious communities, i.e. Bhagavad Gita, Bible and Quran. Once passed by the legislature, it would await the Centre’s approval — an earlier bill was returned by the Centre on the ground that the punishment sought should have been for hurting the religious sentiments of all communities.

The Congress government’s decision to introduce the bill coincides with its decision to table the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission Report, which looked into incidents of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib and the ensuing protests in several villages in late 2015. Protesters were killed in police firing in Behbal Kalan and Kotakpura in Faridkot.

Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal’s name has also figured in the report. Badal has also been accused of pressurising the head granthi of Takht Damdama Sahib and other Sikh priests to exonerate the Dera Sacha Sauda chief of blasphemy charges after he was charged with impersonating the 10th Sikh Guru.

With the bill and the report, the Congress has revived its attack on the Akali Dal, charging the party of failing to check repeated incidents of desecration of the holy book and trying to exonerate the Dera chief eyeing the votes from his followers.

In politics, timing matters. The Congress is trying to do two things as 2019 elections is around the corner with Punjab among the few states where the party clearly fancies its chances.

One, the party wants to remind the panthic voter about the abject failure of the Akali Dal to check the repeated acts of sacrilege hurting the religious sentiments of the Sikh community.

The Akali leadership (read the Badal family), despite remaining in power for two terms (2007-17), has been at the receiving end from both the panthic voter and the sizeable Sikh diaspora for weakening not only the ideology of the cadre-based party but also the two pillars of Sikh politics — the  Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and the Akal Takht.

In the 2014 and 2017 polls, many of the disgruntled panthic voters supported the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). As the AAP in Punjab seems to be on the verge of imploding, Singh, who had resigned from the Congress after Operation Blue Star, aims to wean away the committed panthic vote of the Akali Dal and the AAP in Congress’ favour.

Second, the party also wants to flaunt its secular character to strengthen its support base among other communities by proposing the sacrilege bill.

While the Akali Dal must take its share of the blame, the Congress cannot get away for playing with the religious sentiments of the people in a state which has in the past witnessed such politics taking a disastrous turn.

The Congress’ move to further strengthen the blasphemy law has come at a time when the middle classes in society are moving towards right-wing politics based on religious identity.

The Constitution underlines the secular democratic character of Indian polity by not only invoking it in the Preamble but also by guaranteeing the right to religious freedom through Articles 19 and 25. Given this, there are existing laws to punish those who hurts religious sentiments — so, is there a need to bring an extraordinary law?

We are witnessing mobs going on a rampage justifying their acts in the name of religion; extraordinary laws, such as the ones to protect national security, have led to highhandedness by state agencies, and; such laws have led to political parties misusing it in the past. The proposed blasphemy law must be seen in this light.

Even when seen from the narrow political/electoral terms, the Congress can only hope to have a short-term gains as any attempt to use religious sentiments for political purposes is more likely to help the Akali Dal, the past master of panthic politics, and the BJP.

(Ashutosh Kumar is professor, department of political science, Panjab University. Views expressed are personal)