The Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Celebration (AAP) authorities in Punjab has paved the best way for the standing of holy cities together with Anandpur Sahib and Talwandi Sabo to be on par with the walled metropolis of Amritsar, banning the sale and consumption of liquor, meat, tobacco and different intoxicants in these areas.
A decision to this impact was unanimously handed by the Punjab Meeting final Monday throughout a day-long particular session held at Anandpur Sahib to commemorate the 350th martyrdom anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur.
In September 1915, British Deputy Commissioner Amritsar CM King issued an order prohibiting the sale of liquor close to the Darbar Sahib or Golden Temple.
In October 1973, when the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) handed the Anandpur Sahib Decision, the demand for Amritsar to be declared a ‘holy metropolis’ was a part of it.
About eight years later, on Could 25, 1981, the then Amritsar Deputy Commissioner SMS Chahal convened a joint assembly of Hindu and Sikh leaders of Amritsar metropolis to debate the demand for granting Amritsar the standing of a holy metropolis.
In September 1980, Gurucharan Singh Thora, chairman of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex physique of the Sikh faith, urged then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to declare Amritsar a holy place.
The All India Sikh College students Federation (AISSF) and the political group Dal Khalsa known as for a march on Could 31, 1981 to demand recognition of Amritsar as a holy web site. On the time, the native Bharatiya Janata Celebration opposed the demand.
Chahal known as a gathering to keep away from a procession by Sikh teams. On the assembly, Sikhs had been represented by AISSF leaders Amrik Singh and Harminder Singh Sandhu, whereas the Hindu aspect was represented by Gopi Chand Bhatiya, Bhola Nath Dilawali and OP Prabhakar, who prompt that together with a ban on alcohol and tobacco merchandise, meat retailers must also be relocated from the holy metropolis space.
This proposal was accepted by Sikh leaders and it was determined that each Hindus and Sikhs would maintain a joint march in help of this proposal. Each side additionally signed a doc stating that in view of Amritsar’s sacred standing, the use and sale of cigarettes, tobacco, meat and alcohol must be prohibited inside a 300 meter radius of Darbar Sahib.
Nevertheless, on March 28, 1981, then native BJP MLA Harbans Lal Khanna led one other march in Amritsar towards this demand, displaying tobacco merchandise resulting in violence.
In a textual content recalling the march, the then Amritsar SSP Gurbachan Jagat stated: “On Could 28, after I was returning to my workplace after lunch, I heard quite a lot of slogans. It was knowledgeable that boys belonging to a specific neighborhood led by late MLA Harbans Lal Khanna had been lining up in a procession, most of them smoking cigarettes and flaunting them. Obnoxious slogans had been raised…ambiance within the metropolis and particularly round Darbar Sahib, including to the strain. ”
In response to Khanna’s march, the then Damdami Taksal chief Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale staged a march in Amritsar on March 31, 1981. Though there was pressure within the metropolis, the incident ended with none violence.
In April 1984, militants assassinated Khanna. The BJP’s Amritsar workplace was named after Khanna.
speak to indian specificLakshmi Kanta Chawla, a BJP veteran, stated she couldn’t keep in mind why Khanna opposed the popularity of Amritsar as a holy web site. Nevertheless, she expressed disapproval of the AAP authorities’s present transfer, saying, “Within the identify of Amritsar, the federal government has primarily fooled the folks. The inside metropolis throughout the walled space of Amritsar has been stated to be sacred. Until date, central Amritsar has been disadvantaged of all amenities within the identify of turning into a wise metropolis.”
Chawla was a minister within the SAD-BJP authorities from 2007 to 2012.
Following Operation Blue Star performed by the Military on the Golden Temple in June 1984, the federal government banned the sale and consumption of alcohol and tobacco inside a 200 meter radius of Darbar Sahib.
Nevertheless, the demand to declare Amritsar as a holy place was by no means taken up by successive governments led by Congress or SAD-BJP.
Explaining why the SAD-led authorities was unable to implement its calls for, celebration spokesperson Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal stated, “We tried to do it sooner, however the Punjab Suba (statehood) motion, together with the Congress and the BJP, Nevertheless, the AAP authorities has simply handed a decision. They don’t seem to be honest on this matter. We are going to see if they really implement it.”
In November 2024, Jagmohan Singh Raju, Punjab state BJP normal secretary and former IAS officer, introduced a starvation strike at Darbar Sahib to demand recognition of Amritsar as a holy place, however was instructed by the SGPC that starvation strikes had been towards the Sikh code of conduct, so he determined to observe the trail of Guru Granth Sahib as an alternative.
In 2022, Raju had requested the Nationwide Fee for Minorities to direct the Punjab authorities to ban the sale and consumption of alcohol and tobacco merchandise inside a one-mile radius of historic gurdwaras, together with Darbar Sahib. The fee had issued a discover to the Bhagwant Mann authorities on this regard.
Following the AAP authorities’s present transfer to confer holy metropolis standing to Amritsar throughout a particular session of Parliament, outstanding civil society group Amritsar Vikas Manch has welcomed this. Nevertheless, Munch additionally stated the choice “lacked readability as as to whether sure components of town had been included throughout the boundaries of the designated holy metropolis.” “Amritsar Vikas Manch requests the Punjab authorities to incorporate your entire walled metropolis within the class of holy metropolis. Amritsar metropolis was based by the fourth Guru of Sikhism, Guru Ramdas, and later strengthened by Maharaja Ranjit Singh,” it stated.
