London, December 1, 2004
PTI

A Non-Resident Indian entrepreneur on Wednesday offered to pay for the "restoration" of the 300-year-old door at the Golden Temple and opposed any move to replace it.

"The door, known as Darshani Deori at the main entrance to the sanctum sanctorum, has a historic significance and I am prepared to pay for its conservation and restoration," said Dr Kartar Singh Lalvani.

73-Year-old Lalvani, founder chairman of Vitabiotics, Britain's first specialist vitamin supplement company, who is also interested in the preservation of artefacts, said the door was originally part of the historic Somnath Temple in Gujarat before it was plundered by raiders from Afghanistan.

Lalvani, winner of the Asian of the Year Award last year, said it was Maharaja Ranjit Singh who secured the door from the then ruler of Afghanistan Shah Zaman as part of a treaty after he defeated the marauders from Kabul. The door first offered to Somnath Temple but it was turned down.
A report quoted to SGPC executive member Kiranjot Kaur said the committee had recently decided to replace the door because its condition has deteriorated over the years.

The work was to be entrusted to the Birmingham-based Sikh Missionary Organisation Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewa Jatha and plans had already been drawn up to import special timber from Africa.

However, everything came to a grinding halt after leading conservation experts began questioning the wisdom of the SGPC's decision.

Lalvani, who supports many art events and foundations such as the local community theatre 'Open For All', concurred with Gurmit Rai, a leading expert on conservation of historical monuments, that the Darshani Deori was of great historical importance and efforts must first be directed at ascertaining whether it was possible to restore it.

Experts feel there is a greater need to conserve elements of Sikh history today, when the Golden Temple is being considered by the UNESCO as a possible world heritage site.