AAP vs Congress After Chief Minister Tables Anti-Sacrilege Bill In Punjab Assembly

NDTV

5 days ago

Chandigarh:
The Punjab Assembly witnessed uproar today when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led government tabled the anti-sacrilege bill, proposing punishment up to life imprisonment for sacrilegious acts against religious scriptures. The 'Punjab Prevention of Offences Against Holy Scripture(s) Bill 2025 was presented by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in the House for discussion.
However, the discussion has been deferred to Tuesday after the Leader of Opposition, Partap Singh Bajwa, said that the members need time to prepare to keep their viewpoints effectively on the bill.
How can we debate on such a delicate issue without going through the draft? asked the Congress leader.
After the proceedings of the house, Bhagwant Mann said that very serious issues were discussed in the assembly. "I introduced the bill. It should be considered immediately. The opposition leader of the house, Pratap Singh Bajwa ji is saying that he has no information about the bill. It is sad that if he does not have information about the desecration of Guru Sahib, then where has he been? Ask a five-year-old child what happened in Bargari? What happened in Behbal Kalan? What happened in Kotkapura? He says that he will come tomorrow after preparing. We said okay. Surprisingly, the Congress has to prepare even in the case of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib. They cannot talk without doing homework. No problem, come tomorrow after preparing. We will discuss tomorrow," he said.
"This is an issue close to our heart. We hope that this bill will be passed tomorrow and will be passed unanimously. This is a very big bill; Punjab is the only state that is bringing this bill. I will again tell the Congress that today they were not prepared; come prepared tomorrow," said the Chief Minister.
Mr Bajwa criticised Mr Mann for his remarks and explained his party's stance, saying, "You must have seen that the session was called special, but there is no preparation. The serious issue that every Punjabi is worried about is the issue of sacrilege. The Punjab Chief Minister had promised that if his party comes to power, it will do justice in sacrilege cases within 24 hours. But even today, after three and a half years of this government, they do not even have a rough draft ready for this. You will be surprised that a similar bill was brought by the Congress government in 2018. I would like to tell the House that the bill was passed unanimously. Every party, including AAP, Akali Dal and BJP, passed it unanimously. We are surprised that first a two-day session was given to us, then an attempt was made to put a gun on our shoulder by putting it in our account and then, on the request of the opposition, the session was extended by two days. The two days that were given to us by the Speaker, our purpose was to discuss law and order. We wanted to discuss the land pooling policy for one day."
"Today, there was a meeting of all the parties with the Speaker, and everyone said that the serious issue of sacrilege should be discussed in a good atmosphere. The speaker gave us a paper fifteen minutes ago. Are we computers that we can know immediately by pressing a button? This is a technical and legal issue. Therefore, it is necessary to study it. I came to know that a little while ago, Mr Mann said that Bajwa sahab said that we are not ready, we need time tomorrow. I have to say with regret that our Chief Minister also needs to show seriousness on the issue of sacrilege. While the head of his party was also present at the meeting, everyone agreed that it should be discussed seriously. If a person disrespects any religious text, they should not go unpunished. The rest of the discussion will take place in the morning. The speaker has scheduled a discussion on it tomorrow," he said.
Continuing the tirade, Mr Bajwa said, "The 24-hour promise made by Mann and his party and (Arvind) Kejriwal to the whole of Punjab has not been fulfilled even after three and a half years. They have not been able to get the bill passed to date, which was unanimously sent to the President in 2018. We will bring the real face of the government in front of the people."
Before the start of the third day of the special session of the state Assembly, the Punjab Prevention of Offences Against Holy Scripture(s) Bill, 2025, was cleared by the cabinet in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mann here.
The bill mandates strict punishment, extending up to life imprisonment, for the desecration of holy scriptures, including the Guru Granth Sahib, Bhagavad Gita, Bible and Quran, an official spokesperson said after the cabinet meeting.
Under the Bill, offence means any sacrilege, damage, destruction, defacing, disfiguring, de-colouring, de-filling, decomposing, burning, breaking or tearing of any holy scripture or part thereof.