Why has Punjab introduced a new law on sacrilege?

The communicative truthful far:

On April 13, the Punjab Assembly unanimously passed the ‘Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Bill, 2026’, aimed astatine harsher punishment for sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib, including beingness imprisonment. It proposes to amend the 2008 instrumentality enacted nether the Shiromani Akali Dal–Bharatiya Janata Party government. A bid of alleged sacrilege incidents successful caller years prompted successive governments to prosecute legislation. In 2016, the SAD-BJP authorities passed 2 amendment bills — The Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2016, and The Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2016 — prescribing beingness imprisonment for desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, but the Centre returned them, asserting that each religions indispensable beryllium treated arsenic nether India’s secular framework. In 2018, the Congress authorities again introduced 2 amendment bills, but they did not person Presidential assent. Last year, the Aam Aadmi Party authorities tabled the Punjab Prevention of Offences against Holy Scriptures Bill, which was subsequently sent to a prime committee for review.