Amritsar, India - As expected, the proposed auction of a rare piece of body armour that experts believe belonged to Guru Gobind Singh in Sotheby's Arts of the Islamic World Sale has triggered condemnation from the Sikh community.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the highest temporal body of Sikhs, has urged the countrymen to oppose the auction of the relic of "the Guru who had stood like a rock in the face of attack by foreign invaders".
It has also exhorted the Sikh Diaspora to purchase the relic "since it carries the name of Guru Gobind Singh" and has asked the prime minister to intervene and stop the auction as it would amount to the violation of maryada .
Talking to TOI on Saturday, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar said the auction should be stopped and its authenticity ascertained. "If it is proved that the armour belonged to the Guru, Sikhs would do everything in their power to bring it back and install it at the central Sikh museum," he said.
Adopting a more rigid stance, former SGPC president Kirpal Singh Badungar stated that "the body armour being auctioned at the Sotheby's is not the real one, but a fake. The original body armour of Guru Gobind Singh is in the treasury of Patiala House."
Nevertheless, he does not want to take chances and is determined that all efforts be made to keep the relic within the community.
"I have conveyed to Makkar that either the SGPC purchase the body armour or let the Sikh organizations in UK make the highest bid for it."
SGPC general secretary Sukhdev Singh Bhaur revealed that they were in constant touch with the religious bodies in UK and with prominent Sikh personalities so as to prevent the relic from going under the hammer on April 9.