New Delhi: The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has started livestreaming the gurbani and kirtan – the recitation of Sikh religious verses – from the Golden Temple on its YouTube channel from Monday, July 24.Punjabi TV channel PTC agreed to bear the SGPC’s Rs 12 lakh monthly cost of streaming the gurbani and kirtan through a New Delhi-based firm the latter hired earlier, reports by The Tribune and the Indian Express said.Monday also marks the expiry date for PTC’s exclusive right to broadcast the gurbani and kirtan, which it acquired in a 2012 contract.But the SGPC has authorised PTC to continue broadcasting the gurbani and kirtan until it is able to start its own TV channel.The committee had earlier appealed to the channel to continue its broadcast following an order from the leader of Sikhism’s highest temporal seat.Harjinder Singh Dhami, the SGPC’s chief, told The Tribune that it is working to set up its channel. “We have started the process to acquire equipment and permission from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It may take two [to] three months,” he said.The YouTube channel will broadcast the Sikh rituals in three blocks – one from 3:30 am to 8:30 am, one from 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm, and the final one from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, The Tribune reported.The SGPC is the apex organisation responsible for the management of gurdwaras in India. It manages the Golden Temple, which is the holiest Sikh shrine in the world.A spokesperson for the SGPC clarified to IE that the rituals’ broadcast rights have been transferred to itself from PTC.Dhami and other members of the SGPC addressing a press conference on Sunday, July 23. Photo: Screenshot from YouTube.However, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann has questioned PTC’s continuing broadcast of the gurbani and kirtan.“Why not others? Will they give the right of gurbani (broadcast) to one family again for an indefinite period of time through the channel? There is a limit to greed,” he said in a tweet according to IE.“Instead of ensuring free-to-air telecast, the SGPC is trying to find a way [to give away rights to the] same channel just to appease a powerful family. It is strange that again the SGPC is on a dirty move to favour the blue-eyed channel of the Badals.”The Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023Mann’s comments are linked to the belief of his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) cadre in Punjab – which also leads the state’s government – that the broadcast of these rituals must be made freely available and not be under the monopoly of PTC.His charge against the ‘Badals’ refers to the state’s Badal family, an influential political family that Sukhbir Singh Badal, leader of the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal party, is part of.Badal reportedly has a stake in PTC.Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann. Photo: Twitter/@AAPPunjab.In pursuance of their goal, the AAP-led government passed the Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023 through Punjab’s legislative assembly in June this year. The Bill seeks to add a clause to the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, which stipulates that the SGPC should propagate the “teachings of the Gurus uninterrupted (without any on-screen advertisements, commercials or distortion) live feed of gurbani from the Golden Temple, Amritsar every day available free of cost to all media houses, platforms, channels or whoever wishes to broadcast it”.It has met with criticism from the SGPC, which says that the legislation amounts to interference with Sikh religious matters.“The SGPC has its own constitution, executive body and as per agreement, nobody can interfere in its functioning. But Mann overlooked all these facts and meddled with the SGPC’s affairs,” former SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur previously told The Wire.Pal Singh Nauli, a senior Punjab-based journalist, also spoke to The Wire about the dubious nature of the amendments to the 1925 Act.“A two-thirds majority of the SGPC is mandatory for any kind of amendment in the 1925 Act. But this fact was ignored. Given the kind of resistance the Gurdwara Amendment Bill was facing, it should not get the governor’s assent. However, in case it gets the nod, the Bill will pave the way for the government to fulfil its hidden agenda in the SGPC’s functioning,” he said.Also Read: Explained: The Controversy Around a Bill to Amend the Sikh Gurdwaras ActWhen addressing the media about the SGPC’s decision to stream the gurbani and kirtan, Dhami asked the Punjab government not to interfere in its affairs and that the Sikh community knows how to handle its own affairs, IE reported.The Bill will need the Punjab governor’s assent in order to proceed into enactment. Earlier this month, governor Banwari Lal Purohit refused to assent to the Gurdwara Amendment Bill as well as four other Bills the assembly passed last month.He said the assembly’s special two-day session on June 19 and 20 were possibly illegal, India Today reported.“As chief minister, you will appreciate that the people of Punjab are equally concerned with ensuring that laws that ultimately affect them are passed after following due procedure. You may rest assured that I shall take action according to the law after the legality of the Vidhan Sabha session is first examined,” he wrote to Mann according to India Today.The chief minister said that Purohit’s actions “[stifled] the democratic will of the people of Punjab.”