39-member JPC on ‘one nation, one election’ bills announced
A 39-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was constituted on Friday to review two bills related to "one nation, one election".
Punjab Assembly on Tuesday passed the Sikh Gurudwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023 to make the transmission of Gurbani from Golden Temple in Amritsar free-to-air for broadcasters all over the world.
Wrapping up a discussion on the Bill on the floor of Punjab Assembly, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said the Bill aims at freeing the undue control of a particular family (read Badals) over the rights to telecast sacred Gurbani.
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He said it was a paradoxical situation that Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) under the influence of a family (Badals) that controls its affairs, had given intellectual property rights of telecasting the sacred Gurbani to a channel owned by them.
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Mann asked how these rights of Gurbani which are repository of knowledge and faith can be given to any one channel.
The CM said the Bill is in no way interference in religious affairs, rather it is a simple step to ensure that Gurbani reaches every household.
He said in the Sikh Gurudwaras Act, 1925, after section 125, section 125-A will be inserted for live telecast of Gurbani free of cost.
Mann said the Act stipulates that it will be the duty of the Board (SGPC) to propagate the teachings of the Gurus by making uninterrupted (without any on screen running advertisements, commercials and distortion) live feed (audio or audio as well as video) of holy Gurbani from Sri Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) available free of cost to all media houses, outlets, platforms, channels etc. whoever wishes to broadcast it.
He claimed that the state government was competent to amend this Act as the Supreme Court had already through a judgment ruled that this Act is not an interstate Act. A single family had dominated in the affairs of the SGPC since long due to which an irreparable damage had been made to the Sikh panth.
He further alleged that playing a dirty game the Badals tried to cash in on the religious sentiments of Sikhs by giving exclusive rights of telecast of Gurbani to their blue eyed channel whereas no mention of word telecast or broadcast was there in the Act.
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