Amid Punjab Sacrilege Video Firestorm Why Bhagwant Mann Is Not On Back Foot

Amid the raging controversy over the sacrilege video allegedly involving him, Punjab Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Bhagwant Mann has intensified his bid to reach out to people, holding a series of Lok Milni events across the state.

Mann has sought to turn these public programmes into political shows of strength at a time when posters, banners and flex boards with a “Boycott Bhagwant Mann” slogan have sprung up in different parts of Punjab, largely near gurdwaras run by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).

On June 15, the Akal Takht, the highest temporal authority of the Sikh community, declared CM Mann “Guru dokhi” (anti-Guru) and “Khalsa panth virodhi” (anti-Khalsa panth) over the alleged sacrilege video, even as the CM has maintained that he was not in the video which was fabricated, he said, to defame him.

An unfazed Mann has since also doubled down on his mass-contact campaign, holding his Lok Milni events virtually every evening – at Bihala and Bhattlan villages in Hoshiarpur district on June 17, Phagwara town in Kapurthala district on June 18, Chanarthal Kalan village in Fatehgarh Sahib district on June 21, Panjgrain Kalan in Faridkot on June 22, Mandi Kalan in Bathinda on June 23, Dharampura in Mansa on June 24, Jhaloor village in Barnala on June 25, and at Gajewas village in Patiala district on June 26.

On June 24, Mann also addressed a Sarpanch Milni function in Bathinda, where he announced that the monthly honorarium of Punjab sarpanchs would be enhanced from Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000 from August 15. With Punjab accounting for about 12,500 villages, the proposal would increase the government’s monthly expenditure on this count from Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 12.5 crore.

Mann has started using the Lok Milni programme not merely as a public grievance redressal platform but also to make politically significant announcements.

At Chanarthal Kalan, Mann said that the beneficiaries registered under the AAP government’s proposed women dole scheme, Mawan Dhiyan Satkar scheme, would receive three months’ instalments together on July 1, covering the April-June period.

The scheme stems from the AAP’s key 2022 Assembly poll guarantee to give Rs 1,000 per month to every eligible woman aged above 18 if voted to power. After nearly four-and-a-half years, the Mann government is now set to roll out this scheme on July 1. The government has allocated Rs 9,300 crore for its implementation in this year’s Budget.

As per the scheme’s guidelines issued by the Mann government earlier this year, women from the general category will receive Rs 1,000, while women from reserved castes will get Rs 1,500.

However, addressing a Lok Milni at Jhaloor village Thursday, Mann announced a major relaxation in the Mawan Dhiyan Satkar scheme, announcing that “Women who are already receiving social security pensions will also be eligible for it.”

Mann has also used these village meetings to make announcements for local areas, clearing various development works and even library funds.

He has mixed it with political messaging, too. On Thursday, the CM decalred that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)’s Qadian constituency in-charge, Gurikbal Singh Mahal, has joined the AAP.

These public events have, however, drawn flak over allegations that protesting farmer union leaders or employees organisations have not been allowed to join them.

At the Dharampura Lok Milni, Mann invited popular Punjabi singer R Nait, who hails from this village, onto the stage, urging him to sing his popular number, “Tere yaar nu dabban nu firde aa par dabda kithe aa?” (They are trying to suppress your friend, but where does he ever get suppressed?).

As Nait sang this song, Mann struck his signature bow-and-arrow pose, which he has often done at his public rallies and roadshows to send a message to his political rivals.

The song, “Dabda kithe aa”, originally sung by R Nait and Mista Baaz, has long been associated with Mann’s political persona, played as a theme song of his campaigns for the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2022 Assembly elections.

After he took charge as the CM in March 2022, this song has often featured at Mann’s public functions or on his social media handles, particularly in times of his political troubles over various contentious issues. Its return at the Dharampura event, this time with Nait himself performing it on the stage and the CM also reciting lines from his song, highlighted the AAP’s bid to project Mann as undaunted amid the current political crisis facing him ahead of the Assembly polls slated for February 2027.

All the three leading Opposition parties – the Congress, Akali Dal and BJP – have demanded Mann’s resignation over the sacrilege video controversy.

Rejecting the optics surrounding the CM’s public outreach, senior SAD leader Daljeet Singh Cheema told The Indian Express, “What he (Mann)

does in his routine public programmes and what is he doing now after the Akal Takht Sahib’s edict, are entirely different things. He is challenging Akal Takht Sahib but people are watching everything.”

Punjab BJP chief Kewal Singh Dhillon alleged that instead of responding to allegations regarding his government, Mann was trying to mislead people with “diversionary statements and theatrical excuses”. “Bhagwant Mann ji, remove the mask of lies. Punjab is watching everything,” Dhillon said.

Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and other party leaders have also kept their guns trained on Mann, with the party even calling for the CM’s “social boycott” over the video row.