SPeaking at a press conference, Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said, the Centre has also decided to request several countries to loan Sikh relics for the heritage exhibition which will be held all over the country during the celebrations starting from April 13 (Baisakhi day) next year. Joshi was talking to reporters after a meeting of the national committee to celebrate the anniversary.

The meeting of the 70-member committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, also decided to constitute an implementation committee to plan and coordinate the implementation of various programmes and projects, Joshi informed. Talking about including poems of Guru GobindSingh in the curriculum, Joshi said, ``He was a great poet and his work has international appeal which is why it needs to be translated,'' Joshi said. Joshi also expressed happiness that the Director-General of UNESCO had written to him saying his suggestion of making 1999 the `Year of Human Spirit' would be incorporated in the UNESCO celebration of 2000 as the `Year of Peace'. The Punjab Government has also started the process of setting up a heritage memorial at Anandpur Sahib. The Government will ask missions abroad to prepare programmes for the Indian community to participate.

The Victoria and Albert museum in London has decided to organise an exhibition `The Arts of the Sikh Kingdom' in the museum and later in a few venues in north America in collaboration with local Sikh community, Joshi said, adding the exhibition is proposed to be inaugurated on March 25.