Sacrilege law a misguided political gamble

THE Punjab Prevention of Offences Against Holy Scripture(s) Bill 2025, tabled in the Assembly on Monday, has turned the spotlight on sacrilege, an emotive issue in the border state. It has sparked a debate on punishment and justice in such cases and the need for deterrence to maintain communal harmony in Punjab.

It is heartening that the draft Bill has been referred to a Select Committee of MLAs for consultation with all stakeholders on this controversial matter.

Notably, the sacrilege issue remains dormant and gets the attention of the ruling governments only when state Assembly elections are approaching. It became a major political issue for the first time during the 2017 Assembly elections. Capt Amarinder Singh, Congress party leader, promised to provide time-bound justice by taking the oath of the Sikh holy book. It gained much political mileage. He constituted a commission under former high court judge Ranjit Singh to look into the alleged sacrilege incidents committed during the Akali-led regime.

In 2018, the Vidhan Sabha, after discussing Justice Ranjit Singh’s report, passed a Bill recommending life imprisonment to the culprits of sacrilege of all religious texts and making amendments to the Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure accordingly. But the Bill was not given consent by the Central Government and was sent back to the state government.

There seemed to be a competition between the then ruling Congress party and the opposition party, AAP, on taking credit for the Bill. The walkout of Akali legislators during the discussion on the Bill provided an opportunity to both the Congress and AAP of accusing the Badals of committing the sacrilege incidents and hobnobbing with the controversial Dera Sacha Sauda chief for political gains.

Earlier, another Bill had been passed by the Assembly during the Akali regime in March 2016. But it was withdrawn as it could not get the President’s assent on the ground that it related only to the sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib. This Bill was introduced following the occurrence of many incidents of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in various parts of the state in 2015.

The issue started when, on June 1, 2015, the pages of a Bir (a copy of Guru Granth Sahib) that went missing from Burj Jawahar Singhwala village were later found to be scattered on the streets of Bargari village situated on the Kotkapura-Bathinda highway.

It aggravated the religious sentiments of Sikhs, leading to mass protests. As the police fired to gain control, the clashes led to the death of two persons.

The then state government failed to manage the affairs even as peace and communal harmony were disrupted. A spree of incidents of desecration followed, particularly in rural areas of Malwa and Majha.

As part of the action taken by the Badal government, a judicial probe was instituted into the matter, but nothing much came out of it.

Religion has always been at the core of politics in Punjab. Sikhs have dominated the political scenario since the reorganisation of the state in 1966.

Given this background, the agenda to make religious sentiments the basis of law is a recipe for dangerous authoritarianism and a threat to the liberty of an individual.

The people of Punjab have suffered the deadly mixture of religion and politics in the recent past.

The proposed legislation is nothing but misdirected populism, which has the potential to backfire, as also to intensify religious intolerance and radicalism in the state.

Also, it is very difficult to define the term “sacrilege". The definition “intention to hurt religious feelings" is a vague notion that has the potential to be misused. It can be challenged in the court of law.

There are enough existing laws to deal with those who generate hatred and enmity between and among various communities by hurting their religious sentiments. The purpose of the new enactment seems to be more political, thus undermining democracy. It will push the state to a point where religiosity threatens the secular and progressive forces that fight the coercive actions of the state.

Besides the technical shortcomings in the proposed Bill, its intentional drawbacks cannot be ignored. In a multi-religious, multicultural and multiethnic country like India, any law on blasphemy can have disastrous consequences. Earlier, religion was used as a tool to woo voters. But such a law would be a direct strike on the basic cultural and religious foundations of the Indian nation.

There are enormous examples of countries (especially Islamic countries) using blasphemy laws for their own political survival and silencing any political and social criticism arising from such policies. These laws have been used as tools of oppression rather than as symbols of culture and religious differences.

Religion is being increasingly misused by the state in Indian politics. Such acts of the government will not only disturb the peace in the country but also lead to communal tensions in the state.

The blasphemy law is a dangerous tool; it can be used against the minorities, marginalised and defenceless sections of society. If used by the state of Punjab, it can backfire at the national level, where the BJP is at the centre.

Thus, if this draft becomes a reality, it will give a new impetus to the fundamental forces and organisations in the state. Enforcing religious belief as a societal norm has dangerous implications.

The attempt of the state government to collaborate with religion in punishing blasphemy, as the arguments given in the Vidhan Sabha show, seems to be illogical. They must go into the root cause of what happened in 2015 and its after effects. The proposed law will curtail the freedom of speech and can be misused for petty and narrow political interests.

The most disturbing aspect of this Bill is that it can be used against human rights activists, leaders of peoples’ movements and those who are struggling for their rights, demanding justice from the people in power.

Jagrup Singh Sekhon is former Professor, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

Comments