The incident of Morinda desecration could have stopped, if the President had taken this decision 5 years ago!

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Bureau report: Call it the will of the governments to be strict or else political tug of war. As guilty of blasphemy are those who dare to commit this crime as those who have not yet passed strict laws against blasphemy. While blasphemy is such a spark that can set fire in the entire state, but despite this, the central government is silent on the strict law sent by Punjab for the last 5 years. The incident of blasphemy in 2015 has not received justice till now, 2 elections were won in the name of this but the result did not come out. If there was, there would be no need for profanity in Kotwali Sahib, the historic Gurudwara of Murinda.

The Badal government made a strict law against blasphemy

On March 21, 2016, the Akali Dal BJP government passed The Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill in the case of blasphemy and sent it to the Centre, according to which the accused who blasphemed Sri Guru Granth Sahib will be sentenced to life imprisonment. Whereas earlier the violator could get bail within 15 days and the punishment under Section 295A of IPC was only 3 years. But the central government returned this law saying that it only mentions Sri Guru Granth Sahib and does not mention other religious scriptures. After this, when Captain Sarkar came to the ministry, it was amended.

Captain Sarkar included all religions.

The then Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh in 2018 amended the strict punishment for blasphemy bill. First of all, it included all religious scriptures Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Srimad Bhagwat Gita, Holy Quran and Holy Bible. Then ‘IPC (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018’ and ‘Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018’ have been passed in place of sections 295 and 295-A of blasphemy. According to which the violator will be punished with life imprisonment. Captain Sarkar sent this bill to the President. In 2021, when a person attempted to commit blasphemy in Sri Darbar Sahib Amritsar, the then Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa wrote a letter to the Union Home Ministry urging the President to pass the Blasphemy Amendment Bill in 2018. Randhawa reasoned that Sri Guru Granth Sahib is the Jagat Jot Guru and if anyone harms him, the punishment is equal to murder. Not only this, Randhawa said that the central government had set a condition to include all religions, that is also for the mind. The former Deputy Chief Minister had told the Center that the issue of desecration of religious scriptures is very critical for a border state like Punjab. But the center did not give any answer to this. After this, in December last year, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann also met Home Minister Amit Shah and demanded the passage of the blasphemy law in 2018.

Mann had a meeting with the Home Minister

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in December and sought the Indian government’s intervention to seek the President’s assent for two important pending state bills to provide stiffer punishments for those found guilty of the heinous crime of blasphemy. The Chief Minister said that desecration of holy books is a big challenge in the state. He said that in this context it is felt that the term of punishment for desecration of holy scriptures as per the existing provisions of Sections 295 and 295-A of the Indian Penal Code is inadequate. Bhagwant Mann told the Union Home Minister that the Punjab Legislative Assembly has passed the ‘IPC (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018’ and the ‘Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018’. The Chief Minister had said that this amendment is in accordance with the principles of secularism enshrined in our Constitution. He said that these bills are pending for approval of the President of India since October, 2018. Stressing that this bill is necessary to maintain communal harmony as Punjab is a border state, Bhagwant Mann sought the intervention of the central government to give severe punishment to criminals who are trying to disrupt communal peace and communal harmony in the state. These bills require the quick approval of the President. But despite this, the surprising thing is that even after 5 years, the central government has not taken any decision on this legislation.