Jalandhar: What began as a demand for justice in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege cases has turned into a confrontation between the state’s legislature and the Akal Takht, with Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann and Sikh AAP ministers and MLAs set to appear before the Akal Takht secretariat on Monday over objections to the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Act, 2026.While the AAP govt describes the new legislation as a “stringent anti-sacrilege law”, the Akal Takht has objected to several of its provisions. The development comes even as justice continues to elude the victims of the 2015 sacrilege and subsequent police firing cases, a key promise made by AAP ahead of the 2022 assembly elections.On June 15, the Akal Takht summoned all Sikh ministers and MLAs to appear before its secretariat on June 29 and asked non-Sikh ministers to submit written clarifications. The move has triggered a debate over whether a religious authority is encroaching on the legislature’s domain or whether it reflects a larger institutional confrontation.The standoff also marks a departure from a convention followed for more than six decades while legislating on Sikh religious affairs. The Centre and Punjab govt had long adhered to the spirit of the Nehru-Tara Singh Pact of 1959 while amending the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, or enacting laws affecting Sikh religious affairs. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) was traditionally consulted before any such legislation was introduced.The pact held that there should be no governmental interference in religious affairs and that no amendment to the Sikh Gurdwaras Act should be undertaken without the approval of the SGPC’s general body. During the debate on the new law, the Akal Takht jathedar, the SGPC and several Sikh intellectuals and activists argued that the manner in which it was enacted violated the spirit of the Nehru-Tara Singh Pact.Although the new provisions have been enacted through a separate 2008 law and do not amend the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, critics argue they go beyond prescribing punishment for sacrilege. They also deal with religious affairs and define aspects of the SGPC’s internal functioning.The controversy echoes the AAP govt’s 2023 attempt to amend the Sikh Gurdwaras Act without consulting the SGPC. The amendment remains pending after the then Punjab governor withheld assent. Even Sikh groups and activists opposed to the present SGPC leadership and the Badal family have maintained that the govt should not legislate on Sikh religious affairs without the SGPC’s consent.Former Union minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, who initiated the move for reservation for women in the SGPC during the United Front govt in the late 1990s, told TOI in June 2023 that then Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda had insisted on taking the SGPC into confidence. “Before the law was brought in, the Prime Minister held a meeting with then SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra and obtained his consent,” Ramoowalia said.What led to the Nehru-Tara Singh PactThe Nehru-Tara Singh Pact of April 1959 followed a confrontation triggered by the Partap Singh Kairon-led Congress govt’s decision to hurriedly push through an amendment to the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, in January 1959. After Master Tara Singh, then president of the Shiromani Akali Dal, was arrested and Akali workers faced a crackdown, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru invited the Akali leader for talks. According to historical accounts, the Prime Minister’s Secretariat later stated that there was “common ground among all concerned that there should be no governmental interference in religious affairs”. The Sikh Encyclopaedia notes that the pact laid down an unequivocal commitment that no amendment to the Sikh Gurdwaras Act would be undertaken without the approval of the SGPC’s general body.
