Uprooted from vicinity of Golden Temple, statues gather dust

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 16

Bronze statues of folk dancers uprooted from the vicinity of the Golden Temple continue to gather dust at the office of the Punjab Heritage Tourism Promotion Board (PHTPB).

Undue delay in their relocation irks people associated with the tourism industry.

The tourism department is looking for a suitable space for reinstalling the statues depicting folk dances “giddha” and “bhangra”. Prospective places could be Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport, local railway station and Attari-Wagah joint check post.

Over a year ago on the instructions of CM Capt Amarinder Singh, the Cultural Affairs Department had shifted statues of folk dancers from Heritage Street in the vicinity of the Golden Temple. Taking into account the religious sentiments of the Sikh community, the life-size statues depicting “giddha” and “bhangra” were shifted. Now, these are placed in the parking bay of the PHTPB, situated opposite the Gobindgarh fort.

People associated with the tourism industry said these must be judiciously used to draw the attention of the tourists at the earliest. Post Covid-19, the industry is striving to regain its lost ground and each step would contribute in this direction.

The PWD had got these bronze statues constructed from famed artists of Jaipur during the tenure of previous SAD-BJP government in 2016. Sikh bodies had objected to the location of the statues on the way to the Golden Temple as these “prompted youngsters to take selfies and vitiated the minds of devotees going to pay obeisance at the holiest Sikh shrine”.

A few Sikh youth had even vandalised the statues and clashed with the police on duty on January 15, 2020. It had prompted the CM to take swift decision to remove the statues from the place. PHTPB project incharge AR Mishra said these statues would be installed at a place where tourist footfall was high.