Auction of Guru’s relic.

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 .

It goes under the hammer on April 9^th.