Anti-sacrilege law ‘incomplete’: Punjab groups

Jalandhar: Two groups from Punjab, Guru-Adab Morcha Sirhind and Lok-Raj Punjab, have flayed the recently enacted anti-sacrilege law for Guru Granth Sahib, terming it ‘partial' and ‘contemptuous circumvention of Supreme Court judgement' that confirmed ‘juristic person' status to the Sikh holy book, revered as "living guru" in the Sikh faith.Stating that state govt's intentions seemed ‘not clear and bona fide', the groups alleged that it connived with the culprits of sacrilege. "It miserably failed to do justice in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case, in which Sirsa dera chief was involved. The govt has not sanctioned prosecution of the Dera chief involved in sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib. On the other hand, all cases of sacrilege have been transferred out of Punjab on demands of the accused," said Dr Manjit Singh Randhawa, who heads the two groups, in a statement issued on Tuesday. "The orchestrated propaganda has shifted from failure of delivery of justice to mere enactment of strict law, when the law and order situation is pitiably hopeless," he said, adding, Punjab govt's ‘inapt governance' preferred to henceforth wash off its hands from govt's responsibility on the most sensitive issue.He argued that through this act, the govt ‘very cunningly' shifted whole responsibility to check such assaults on Guru Granth Sahib upon devotees and gurdwara committees, as ‘custodians', that too without defining ‘self-defence rights of devotees as custodians' to protect the ‘juristic person'. He also held that it was a covert move to justify govt's direct interference, even in the publication and distribution of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. MSID: 130418623 413 |