The 'political' cost of sacrilege in Punjab: Another government faces acid test

The issue is going to find reverberation in campaigns, with elections around corner

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ITDC NEWS R The 2015 incidents of sacrilege cost two Punjab chief ministers their jobs. The Parkash Singh Badal-led Akali Dal government finished third in the 2017 assembly elections, as anger built up against its failure to arrest the accused in the case, along with police firing on protestors. Captain Amarinder Singh too had to pay a high price as he came under attack for his government’s failure to honour the poll promise to arrest the accused in the case. Now, a third chief minister faces an acid test.

As elections approach in the border state, the number of sacrilege incidents have gone up.

For the political parties, religious leaders, and the man on the street, the sacrilege incidents in Amritsar and Kapurthala within 24 hours appear to be part of a conspiracy, as were the past incidents. The sacrilege of holy book and Sikh symbols have been a highly sensitive issue in the state, often leading to prolonged violent protests. The killing of a Nirankari sect leader in 1980 is often cited as the beginning of a long dark era of shift towards radicalism and of militancy. Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh, too, had to face violent protests for ‘imitating and dishonouring’ Sikh gurus.

As holy book Guru Granth Sahib was ordained as a living guru by the last Sikh guru Guru Gobind Sungh, any disrespect against it is viewed as an attack on a Sikh guru.

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Harjinder Singh Dhami termed the lynching of a youth involved in beadbi (sacrilege) of the holy book inside the Golden Temple as an act of self-defence, as the youth tried to attack with a sword.

The incident of sacrilege and subsequent lynching has sent shock waves across the Sikh world. Even the earlier gruesome killing of a dalit youth by Nihangs at Singhu border was seen as a blot. Many scholars felt that it harmed the image of Sikhs across the world.

With elections around the corner, the sacrilege issue is going to find reverberation in poll campaigns. The Congress government is under pressure to deliver and prove if the incidents were part of a conspiracy or individual acts (a difficult conclusion which the people of the state are unlikely to believe). In past cases of sacrilege, the accused were declared as mentally unstable, a charge which failed to convince the community, leading to anger.

Being a border state, the chances of attempts from the neighbouring country to disturb peace are always high.

All the political parties have condemned the incidents and have demanded probes. The state government’s decision to set up an SIT to probe the incident has yet to build confidence in people. SGPC, which is controlled by Akali Dal, has set up its own SIT to probe incident, as it has access to CCTV footage of the accused several hours before he jumped into the sanctum sanctorum. While the Amritsar incident has been caught on camera, there is little evidence of sacrilege in the Kapurthala incident.

The state government has revived the demand of making blasphemy punishable with life sentence. Other political parties too are expected to join the chorus. Any more incidents of sacrilege in the coming days pose a danger of radicalism gaining traction, and also the political parties being forced to take a more panthic line.