In the last few days, two separate incidents of lynchings over sacrilege in Punjab have taken the entire country by storm. The visuals circulating on various social media platforms have shaken the collective conscience of the nation. A sizeable section of the society is condemning the lynchings at Golden Temple, Amritsar and at a gurdwara in Kapurthala unequivocally but what’s shocking is that not a single politician across the political spectrum has come forward to condemn the gory events that have claimed two lives.
Just to give a little context, a man who could be seen trying to jump over Sri Guru Granth Sahib at the Golden Temple in a viral video was caught by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) staff over an alleged attempt to do Beadbi (sacrilege). Soon, a mob gathered outside the SGPC office demanding that the ‘culprit’ be handed over to them. Responding to their demands, SGPC instead placed the body of the man outside. Thus, without any due proceeding to determine his culpability and without trying him at a court of law, ‘justice’ was delivered instantly.
The same thing happened shortly in Kapurthala where it was alleged that a man was trying to disrespect the Nishan Sahib (the Sikh Triangular Flag) at a local gurdwara. This man was also immediately lynched, without reporting him to police. These two separate incidents have one thing in common—legitimisation of mob justice in the name of religion by the Sikh community. It is not only problematic for their own image in a globalised world but also sets a dangerous precedent in a secular, multi-cultural and multi-religious India.
Sacrilege is, in fact, punishable under law in India. Sections 295 and 295A of the Indian Penal Code have provision for punishment in case any destruction, damage or defiling of a religious object or place of worship is done and feelings of any religious community are outraged. But instead of approaching the police and following the due process of law, the mob decided to take law into their own hands.
The logic being offered is that the Sikh community is ‘tired’ of inaction in multiple cases of sacrilege and it is high time for justice; hence “Sangat Karugi Insaaf” (the people will do justice). Nothing outlines this new thinking within the community more than the statements issued by the community leaders in the aftermath of such incidents.
After the Amritsar incident, SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami issued a statement saying, “It is the failure of the governments and agencies who could not reach the people behind such culprits”. Similarly, after the Singhu border incident where a labourer was killed and his hand chopped off by Nihang Sikhs, Jathedar (head priest) of the Akal Takht issued a statement saying that Sikhs kept waiting for justice in more than 400 cases but “not a single culprit has been given such exemplary punishment that can heal the simmering wounds among Sikhs”.
This, by far, is the common refrain among the Sikh community that if the government can’t act, ‘Sangat’ would. But question is: how dangerous would such a thought process be for the progress and security of a secular country like India? Why exactly is the Sikh community allowed to get away with this exceptionalism that not a single politician has condemned this approach so far?
To understand this, we need to understand the power of the gurdwaras within Punjab. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is the apex body that manages historical gurdwaras in not just Punjab but in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and UT of Chandigarh as well. The SGPC and its political arm, the Shiromani Akali Dal, that have dominated Punjab politics since Independence were created after a long agitation during the British rule in 1920s. After Independence, it again led an agitation to divide Punjab so that Sikhs could become the dominant group. In undivided Punjab, 61 per cent population was Hindu and only 39 per cent was Sikh. This changed with the division of Punjab in 1966.
Sikhs not only became politically indispensable for all political parties trying their fortune in Punjab but they also hold command over the riches. The SGPC itself has a budget of around Rs 1000 crore every financial year. The political and financial hold of the community over Punjab politics was also witnessed during the farmers’ agitation. The SGPC not only built infrastructure at the protest sites at Delhi border but also doled out compensation to the kin of farmers who lost their lives.
While the Constitution does have provision for different religious communities to manage their religious affairs, this time with the cold-blooded lynchings, the SGPC and the larger Sikh community are at crossroads with the basic tenets of our constitutional democracy. What’s more shameful is the lack of condemnation by political parties of all shades.
The author is a PhD in International Relations from the Department of International Relations, South Asian University. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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