The Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab has paved the way for according the status of holy cities to the Amritsar Walled City along with Anandpur Sahib and Talwandi Sabo, and banning sale and consumption of liquor, meat, tobacco items and other intoxicants in these areas.
A resolution to this effect was passed unanimously by the Punjab Assembly last Monday during a day-long special session held in Anandpur Sahib to mark the 350th martyrdom anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur.
In September 1915, the British deputy commissioner, Amritsar, C M King, had issued an order imposing a ban on the sale of liquor near the Darbar Sahib or Golden Temple.
In October 1973, when the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) passed the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, the demand to declare Amritsar a “holy city” was part of it.
About eight years later, on May 25, 1981, the then Amritsar deputy commissioner S M S Chahal called a joint meeting of the city’s Hindu and Sikh leaders to discuss the demand of granting Amritsar a holy city status.
In September 1980, the president of the top Sikh body Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Gurcharan Singh Tohra, urged the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to declare Amritsar a holy city.
The All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) and the Dal Khalsa, a political outfit, called for a march on May 31, 1981 to press for a holy city status for Amritsar. At the time, the local BJP unit was opposed to this demand.
Chahal had called the meeting to avoid the Sikh bodies’ march. AISSF leaders Amreek Singh and Harminder Singh Sandhu represented Sikhs in this meeting, while the Hindu side was represented by Gopi Chand Bhatiya, Bhola Nath Dilawari, and O P Prabhakar, who proposed that along with a ban on liquor and tobacco products, meat shops should also be shifted out of the holy city area.
This proposal was accepted by the Sikh leaders, with a decision taken that both the Hindu and Sikh bodies would hold a joint march in its support. A document was also signed by the two camps stating that given Amritsar’s holy status, a ban should be imposed on the use and sale of cigarettes, tobacco, meat, and liquor within a 300 m radius of Darbar Sahib.
However, on March 28, 1981, then local BJP MLA Harbans Lal Khanna led a separate march in Amritsar against this demand, displaying tobacco products which led to violence.
In a piece recounting that march, then Amritsar SSP Gurbachan Jagat stated: “On May 28, when I was going back to office after lunch, I heard a lot of sloganeering. I was informed that some boys belonging to a particular community and led by BJP MLA late Harbans Lal Khanna had taken out a procession in vehicles and most of them were smoking cigarettes and showing them off. Objectionable slogans were raised… The atmosphere in the city and especially around Darbar Sahib was surcharged with tension.”
As a counter to Khanna’s march, then Damdami Taksal chief Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale held a march in Amritsar on March 31, 1981. It passed off without any violence, although there was tension in the city.
In April 1984, militants assassinated Khanna. The BJP’s Amritsar office is named after Khanna.
Talking to The Indian Express, BJP veteran Laxmi Kanta Chawla said she could not recall why Khanna would oppose a holy city status for Amritsar. She however expressed her reservations over the AAP government’s current move, saying “In the name of Amritsar, the government has largely deceived the people. It has been said that the city inside the walled area of Amritsar is holy. Till date, the inner city of Amritsar has been deprived of all facilities in the name of making it a smart city.”
Chawla had been a minister in the SAD-BJP government during 2007-2012.
Following Operation Blue Star conducted by the Army in the Golden Temple in June 1984, the government banned the sale and consumption of liquor and tobacco within a 200 m radius of Darbar Sahib.
However, the demand for declaring Amritsar a holy city had never been addressed by successive governments led by the Congress as well as the SAD-BJP.
On why the SAD-led governments could not implement their own demand, party spokesperson Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal said “We tried to implement it earlier. However, it was not possible due to the opposition of those who opposed the Punjabi Suba (statehood) movement, including the Congress and BJP. Still, the AAP government has just passed the resolution. It is not an Act. They are not sincere about it, and we will see if they actually implement it.”
In November 2024, Punjab BJP general secretary and ex-IAS officer Jagmohan Singh Raju announced a hunger strike at Darbar Sahib to press for a holy city status for Amritsar, but after the SGPC told him that a hunger strike is not in accordance with the Sikh code of conduct, he instead decided to perform the Paath of Guru Granth Sahib.
In 2022, Raju had urged the National Commission for Minorities to direct the Punjab government to ban the sale and consumption of alcohol and tobacco products within a one-mile radius of the historical gurdwaras, including Darbar Sahib. The Commission had issued a notice to the Bhagwant Mann government in this regard.
After the AAP government’s current move to give a holy city status to Amritsar during the Assembly’s special session, the Amritsar Vikas Manch, a prominent civil society body, has welcomed it. The Manch has however also said that the decision “lacked clarity regarding which specific parts of the city would be included within the designated holy city boundaries”. “Amritsar Vikas Manch urges the Punjab government to include the entire walled inner city within the category of the holy city. The city of Amritsar, founded by the fourth Sikh Guru, Guru Ramdas, was later fortified by Maharaja Ranjit Singh,” it stated.