Bhagwant Mann ‘Guru Dokhi’ Row: Oppn Parties Sharpen Attack, BJP Seeks FIR; Lawyer Raises Legal Flag

Bhagwant Mann ‘Guru Dokhi’ Row: A week after the Akal Takht declared the Punjab Chief Minister “anti-Guru” over a disputed video, the state’s political class has split sharply – and a Chandigarh advocate is raising a separate, non-partisan alarm.

North Desk Correspondent

Chandigarh, June 17

Punjab’s most explosive political-religious standoff in years escalated this week after the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, declared Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann “Guru Dokhi” (anti-Guru) and “Khalsa Panth Virodhi” (anti-Khalsa Panth) on Monday, June 15.

Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj pronounced the verdict after two government-recognised forensic laboratories concluded that a video purportedly showing a man resembling Mann disrespecting Sikh Gurus was neither AI-generated nor doctored — directly contradicting the explanation Mann had given the Akal Takht when he appeared before it in January.

The Akal Takht also used the occasion to summon the entire Punjab Cabinet and every Sikh MLA, irrespective of party, to appear before it on June 29 over a separate, longer-running dispute: the government’s amended anti-sacrilege law, which the Akal Takht says was pushed through without adequate consultation with Sikh religious bodies. Mann rejected the ‘Guru Dokhi’ verdict the next day, calling it a political conspiracy. By midweek, every major party in the state had staked out a position. Here is where each one stands — and where the claims start to get contested.

Akal Takht and SGPC: institutional backing for the verdict

Bhagwant Mann ‘Guru Dokhi’ row: Pronouncing the edict from the Akal Takht’s faseel, Jathedar Gargaj said Mann had been given repeated opportunities over six months to substantiate his claim that the video was AI-generated, and never did. Lying before the Sikh religious authority, he said, was itself a serious offence, and he directed the Sikh community to have nothing to do with Mann until the matter is resolved.

READ: Bhagwant Mann ‘Guru Dokhi’, Declares Akal Takht: How CM’s Own Dare Led to Historic Censure

The SGPC has backed the verdict publicly. President Harjinder Singh Dhami said Mann should resign immediately, given that a reputed national forensic laboratory had found the video genuine.

SGPC executive member Surjit Singh Bittawad went further, urging Mann to step down and personally appear before the Akal Takht to seek forgiveness — a course, he said, every faithful Sikh should accept.

A statement circulated by the Shiromani Akali Dal on June 15 went furthest, arguing Mann had lost any moral right to continue as chief minister and calling on Sikh members of the ruling party to resign their posts in line with the edict.

The party convened an emergency meeting of its core committee on Wednesday, June 17, at its Chandigarh headquarters to decide its next steps.

AAP and the government: ‘a conspiracy, not contrition’

Bhagwant Mann ‘Guru Dokhi’ row: Mann has rejected the edict outright. In a video message, he said the man in the viral clip was not him, accused the SGPC president of acting as “an open propagandist for the Akali Dal,” and pointed to what he called the inconsistency of Sikh bodies that first criticised the government for not legislating against sacrilege and then criticised it for legislating without consultation.

AAP’s Punjab media in-charge Baltej Pannu took aim at the forensic report itself, arguing it never establishes whose face is actually in the video, and accused the Akali Dal of dragging Sikh institutions into a “political battlefield” to revive its electoral fortunes. He also questioned the Jathedar’s own appointment, alleging — without offering independent evidence — that it was finalised at Sukhbir Singh Badal’s behest without consulting other Sikh sects.

Not every AAP voice went on the offensive. In Mohali, cabinet minister Aman Arora kept his response brief: “When the Chief Minister himself has already spoken about it yesterday, I don’t think I need to add anything further. What the CM has said earlier, and what he has reiterated now, is his own stand. As far as this matter is concerned, it can only be verified through forensic examination.”

READ: Bhagwant Mann Rejects Video, Contradicts Forensic Report; Blames Sukhbir Badal

Congress: resignation, but not confrontation

Congress leaders were unambiguous in wanting Mann gone, while drawing a careful line between criticising him and challenging the Akal Takht itself. State party chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said Mann had every right to defend himself but should not have resorted to defiance of the Akal Takht’s authority, warning that pitting the state government against Sikhs’ highest temporal seat “does not bode well” for Punjab.

Invoking Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s own submission before a past Jathedar, Warring asked: if the Maharaja could appear before the Akal Takht, why can’t Mann?

Leader of the opposition Partap Singh Bajwa called the finding “an extremely serious issue, not a routine political controversy,” while Sangrur MP Sukhjinder Randhawa said it was a matter of shame for the state and suggested the government get the video tested at a government laboratory if it disputed the Akal Takht’s findings.

Akali Dal and BJP: pressing the advantage

Beyond the core committee meeting, the Akali Dal’s sharpest charge has come from senior leader Bikram Singh Majithia, who alleged that a senior Punjab Police officer was assigned overnight to secure a counter-report from a private forensic laboratory to discredit the Akal Takht’s findings. The claim has not been independently verified and is disputed by AAP; at this stage it should be read as a political allegation, not an established fact.

BJP’s state unit pressed a parallel line. State president Kewal Singh Dhillon said government officials should themselves stop dealing with the chief minister, in keeping with the Akal Takht’s directive — a position that, if acted on by the bureaucracy, would carry administrative weight well beyond the symbolic.

BJP leader Jagmohan Raju demanded that an FIR be registered in the case.

Bhagwant Mann ‘Guru Dokhi’ row: Legal issue

Bhagwant Mann ‘Guru Dokhi’ row: Amid the political exchanges, Chandigarh-based High Court advocate Navkiran Singh raised a different concern entirely — one about the Akal Takht’s own authority. Separately from the merits of the Satkar Act amendments, he argued that summoning every sitting MLA who voted for them amounts to “a direct affront to legislature,” and warned the move could be challenged in court with consequences that, in his words, could be “disastrous and dangerous.” His broader point: the more the Akali Dal uses the Akal Takht for political ends, he said, the worse it is for Sikhs at large.

READ: Haryana Police Brutality: Dalit Advocate Stripped, Cops Held Gun To His Head; HC Monitors Case

Follow North Desk on WhatsApp for the latest from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb7ccdxJENy2H87DBG3E