Bhagwant Mann, who serves as Chief Minister of Punjab, characterised Delhi Police as a tool of the Bharatiya Janata Party and drew a parallel between the force's conduct and that of the Taliban, remarks he made after police moved on Saturday against young demonstrators who had sought shelter inside Gurdwara Bangla Sahib during a protest directed at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
On Sunday, Mann put forward the claim that officers who detained protesters had entered the revered shrine without head coverings and with footwear still on. In a post on X, he expressed strong opposition to what he described as BJP-affiliated police entering Gurdwara Sri Bangla Sahib in Delhi the previous day.
Records of the institution show that its premises have consistently remained accessible to those seeking refuge and assistance. The Punjabi-language post conveyed that demonstrators who had assembled the day before would have been received under the Guru's roof through the sevadar tradition of offering shelter to all who arrive seeking it, and further attributed to the Sikh community a position holding the BJP accountable for what the post characterised as a dishonourable act that those affected say they will not let pass from memory.
A police complaint filed by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee named AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and a number of the party's elected members, with the committee contesting the allegations against it. Harmeet Singh Kalka, who serves as DSGMC president and previously held a BJP MLA seat, alleged that AAP-affiliated individuals brought a political demonstration into the gurdwara — complete with slogans and banners — in what he described as a breach of maryada.
Kalka contended that AAP party figures subsequently spread a carefully chosen, doctored set of videos with the intent of inflaming religious feeling for electoral purposes. H S Phoolka, a senior Supreme Court advocate and BJP office-bearer, put forward the contention that the gurdwara had been drawn into use as a venue for protest rather than its customary purposes of food and shelter, attributing the planning behind that shift to Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party.
According to Phoolka, a group of 13 to 14 officers passed through a public walkway within the complex — an area where shoes and uncovered heads are permitted — and departed in under three minutes that Saturday morning around 11 am. According to his account, officers positioned themselves beyond the shrine entrance throughout the demonstration, which got under way after 1 pm.
The Shiromani Akali Dal also became drawn into the dispute. On Sunday morning, a post linked to MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal appeared briefly online, carrying condemnation of Delhi Police over their entry onto the premises and raising claims of misconduct toward women, before being taken down.
In a written statement, Phoolka raised objections to the conduct of certain SAD (Badal) leaders, alleging — without naming them individually — that they had coordinated with AAP to spread an account he regarded as inaccurate, one that had, in his view, been deliberately presented in a distorted form to members of the Sikh community. Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney, representing the BJP, called on Harsimrat to put forward any evidence that police officers had handled women inappropriately within the premises.
A party functionary within the BJP indicated that Harsimrat's social media post drew notice from the party's central leadership at a point when discussions about restoring ties with her party were reportedly under way — the two having gone their separate ways in 2020 after a dispute over farm legislation that was subsequently withdrawn. Speculation about a potential electoral partnership between the two parties ahead of the 2027 Punjab assembly contest has been circulating in political circles.
A letter from BJP national spokesperson R P Singh to National Commission for Minorities chairman Harjit Singh Grewal called for an inquiry into what the party described as political rallying and slogan-shouting by student groups linked to AAP and the Left inside the gurdwara premises.
