The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), which has taken objection to the Chhatrapati Raja Ram Mandal at Sadashiv Peth in Pune because it depicts the Shri Harmandar Sahib or the Golden Temple in Amritsar, has now decided to visit Pune to pursue the matter.
Members of the SGPC are expected to visit the city on Friday afternoon and Chhatrapati Raja Ram Mandal office-bearers have said that they will follow the decision that the former takes. “This (Golden Temple) is a place of respect and faith for us,” said Yuvraj Nimbalkar, president of Chhatrapati Raja Ram Mandal on Thursday afternoon.
A press release issued by Harjinder Singh Dhami, president, SGPC, on Tuesday had said, “According to the Sikh Sangat of Pune, the management committee of Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar Camp Area of the city is playing a leading role in this work, which is even more painful.” According to the release, replication of the Shri Harmandar Sahib is prohibited.
Meanwhile, work was on in full swing at the mandal on Thursday. Artisans sprayed golden paint on giant structures while, behind the scaffolding, the famous facade of the venerated Sikh place of worship rose high above the street and shops.
At the Gurudwara Guru Nanak Darbar in Camp, where the SGPC members, including Dhami, will arrive, trustees said that they had no role to play in the construction of the mandal. They had been invited by the mandal to check if the Golden Temple was being correctly depicted. “We found that the depiction was accurate. We were even invited for the inauguration. Later, we received a call from Amritsar saying that they had not granted permission to the mandal to depict the Golden Temple,” said a trustee who did not want to be named.
Nimbalkar added that this year, the mandal wanted to pay tribute to the Sikh faith in the year of Guru Nanak’s 555th birth anniversary, so they decided to construct a model of the Golden Temple for our Ganesh Mandal. “We visited Amritsar for this purpose. We also sent a letter detailing our plan to the Nanded gurdwara as well on July 12. The letters asked for blessings to create a Golden Temple replica for our Ganesh Mandal. We also followed up with all the 40 gurdwaras in Pune and explained our ideas. Accordingly, we went ahead with our planning. To create a Ganesh Mandal takes two-three months as artwork has to be prepared,” said Nimbalkar.
He added that the team from Chhatrapati Raja Ram Mandal were welcomed at the Golden Temple and offered langar and felicitation when they went there. “The issue that has come up is that creating a replica of the Golden Temple is not allowed. Our intention was only to honour the Sikh faith. I found it exemplary that, at the Golden Temple, there was no VIP queue or special section. Every person was equal. The premises were clean and there was discipline. There was no class system as people came as one and offered seva. I had heard of this but after experiencing it for three days, I was deeply moved,” says Nimbalkar, adding that the mandal, established in 1892, was the first to hold a sarvajanik Ganesh utsav and its idol was created by the revolutionary Shrimant Bhausaheb Rangari. “We will not allow anything wrong to happen,” said Nimbalkar.