Malvinder Kang seeks Presidential assent for state’s two anti-sacrilege Bills
The Aam Aadmi Party MP from Anandpur Sahib, Malvinder Singh Kang, on Wednesday gave an adjournment notice in the Lok Sabha and demanded a discussion on the issue of sacrilege of holy texts in Punjab.
In a letter to the Lok Sabha secretary-general, Kang demanded the intervention of the Government of India for Presidential assent to Bills of the Punjab Assembly that provide harsher punishment for acts of sacrilege against all religious texts.
On August 28, 2018, under then Capt Amarinder Singh-led Congress government, the Punjab Legislative Assembly had passed the Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, to introduce amendments to the IPC and the CrPC (applicable only in the state of Punjab) that make committing sacrilege against certain religious texts punishable with life imprisonment. The objective was to curb incidents of sacrilege and maintaining communal harmony in the state.
The IPC (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, included the insertion of Section 295AA to provide that “whoever causes injury, damage or sacrilege to Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Holy Quran and Holy Bible with the intention to hurt the religious feelings of the people, shall be punished with imprisonment for life.” Section 295 was also amended to increase the term of imprisonment for the offence of “injuring or defiling a place of worship with the intent to insult the religion of any class” from two years to 10 years.
Were passed by Assembly in 2018
On August 28, 2018, under then Capt Amarinder Singh-led Congress government, the Punjab Legislative Assembly had passed the Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, to introduce amendments to the IPC and the CrPC (applicable only in the state of Punjab) that make committing sacrilege against certain religious texts punishable with life imprisonment.
The Bills had come in the wake of the death of two people and injuries to others in police action against anti-sacrilege protests in 2015.
The issue of sacrilege of holy texts continues to dominate the political narrative in the Punjab where the president of Shiromani Akali Dal, Sukhbir Singh Badal, is facing the wrath of the Akal Takht for failing to address the crimes of sacrilege committed when his party was in power in the state.
Sikh high priests have declared Sukhbir a ‘tankhaiya’ for his “acts that violated the religious code and harmed the Panth” during his time as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state from 2007 to 2017.
