As the SGPC con­tin­ues to draw flak from Sikh cir­cles for rush­ing to dis­man­tle her­itage struc­tures, The Sikh Col­lec­tive has started an on­line pe­ti­tion at change.org ad­dressed to the SGPC pres­i­dent Bibi Ja­gir Kaur ask­ing her to form a per­ma­nent com­mit­tee of ex­perts and to set up Stan­dard Op­er­at­ing Pro­ce­dures to re­view all Sikh and Pun­jab her­itage sites prior to re­con­struc­tion and ren­o­va­tion. WSN re­ports and urges read­ers to sign the pe­ti­tion.

The on­line pe­ti­tion of the Sikh Col­lec­tive ad­dressed to the SGPC pres­i­dent Bibi Ja­gir Kaur urges con­sci­en­tious Sikhs and those who have her­itage close to their hearts to spare a few min­utes to sign the on­line pe­ti­tion that should per­suade the SGPC au­thor­i­ties and the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal not to de­stroy Sikh her­itage sites as they have been re­lent­lessly do­ing since the last many decades. Let it be recorded that, “when her­itage is de­stroyed with an ex­cuse of achiev­ing a de­vel­op­ment agenda, it is not re­ally de­vel­op­ment, it is just planned de­struc­tion of her­itage.”

“His­tory must not record that this gen­er­a­tion in its self­ish­ness and stu­pid­ity, in its un­car­ing and dis­re­gard for her­itage de­stroyed the im­prints of the gen­er­a­tions be­fore it,” prays the pe­ti­tion.

The pe­ti­tion reads, “It is time to set up a com­mit­tee of ex­perts -in­de­pen­dent of SGPC, which will go into the en­tire gamut of his­tory, his­toric­ity, archival and her­itage im­por­tance of every such new dis­cov­ery be­fore the place is re­con­structed or ren­o­vated by any­one.  A strict, im­ple­mentable and fool-proof Stand­ing Op­er­at­ing Pro­ce­dure for her­itage con­ser­va­tion needs to be put in place.”

To save Sikh Her­itage and legacy, The Sikh Col­lec­tive in­vites you to sign a pe­ti­tion to #SGPC Pres­i­dent Bibi Ja­gir Kaur seek­ing the for­ma­tion of an Ex­perts Com­mit­tee and set­ting up Stan­dard Op­er­at­ing Pro­ce­dures for Her­itage Con­ser­va­tion. #pun­jab https://​t.co/​5n­rqMzsarB

— The World Sikh News (@World­SikhNews1) July 19, 2021

The Sikh Col­lec­tive Team reg­is­ters the an­tag­o­nism and an­guish of the Sikhs at the brash­ness of the Kar Sewa vol­un­teers, the stub­born mis­han­dling by the SGPC Task­force and the pre­var­i­ca­tion of the SGPC lead­er­ship.  

How true it is that “what has been lost be­cause of whoso­ev­er’s lapse or con­spir­acy, can­not be re­trieved, but what re­mains must be pre­served at all costs, notwith­stand­ing pres­sures, whims and fan­cies of any per­son.”

Un­ques­tion­ably, the SGPC and its po­lit­i­cal mas­ters in the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal must come out of their ivory tow­ers. They must re­mem­ber that “they are mere cus­to­di­ans, and cus­to­di­ans can­not al­ter the orig­i­nal struc­ture with­out the con­sent and ex­press ap­proval of San­gat and ex­perts.”