Reality Of Sri Guru Singh Sabha Southall

[Nihal]

Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara – Southall

Wahe Guru Ji ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji ki Fateh

Respected Sangat we want to inform you that our Gurdwara’s interests are being damaged by the continued conflict of past 4 years caused by:

Committee’s UNFAIR and UNDEMOCRATIC control of membership recruitment and election processes such that it is virtually impossible to deliver fairness in elections in which its own vested interest of re-election is at stake.

Data analysis company, Experian, scrutiny of the 2006 – 2008 membership lists, showed:

An alarming 42% of the members could not be matched to any reliable public records used to establish authenticity of identity of a person.

Several hundred names and addresses on the membership list matched known deceased persons on public record files.

Relations of committee members known to live outside the Gurdwara catchment’s area are on the membership lists of past many years as well as large numbers of other bogus and unqualified members deliberately recruited every election time by the present committee.

Some persons who serve on the current committee do not qualify under the rules in the constitution when examined under the restrictions imposed by the constitution regarding consumption of alcohol products. There are even examples of intoxicated persons being allowed to attend Gurdwara AGM to support committee’s agendas.

Conflict also arises out of the committee’s abuse of power to expel members who question the management’s decisions on finances and other malpractices of misleading the membership.

The committee’s motives were clearly political neutralisation of all opposition to the their arrogant style of management and as an act of intimidatory deterrent for other members from speaking out against the committee. The injustice is compounded by the committee’s refusal to allow expelled members their right to address the general body as allowed by Clause 11(5) of the Constitution.

The committee acts in dictatorial style of ‘we know best’, threatening any member who dares to question their style with removal from meetings, intimidation and even violence. Conflict causing and hastily conceived Byelaws are implemented to intimidate the simple minded and passive membership to tow the line under fear and duress. Heavy-handed security measures at AGMs escalate the volatile situation to bring out the worst behaviour from angry members.

This committee’s leadership has:

1. Distorted evidence relating to aggressive behaviour.

2. Resorted to unfounded allegations against members of the Lion group

3. Illegally amended the constitution to favour its dictatorial and aggressive style of management to Expel Gurdwara members for political gain using unjustified and irrelevant reasons

4. Made false pledges in Sri Guru Granth Sahib’s presence with no intention of honouring them

5. Obstructed every initiative to find reasonable and pragmatic solutions

6. Deliberately ratcheted tensions to video objectors and use the recordings to mislead authorities to justify its illegitimate control over the Gurdwara.

7. Abused Gurdwara resources for it’s own political survival

8. Wasted large amounts of Sangat’s money by incompetent decisions e.g. £4MILLION it paid for professional services in relation to Gurdwara costing £18 Million. That equates to 3 x normal RICS guidelines on such projects.

9. Practiced restrictive and dogmatic practices in Seva that undermine Gurdwara’s long-term interests by excluding those who seek to work to specified procedures and disciplined decision-making processes, which can be evaluated and measured for transparency and accountability when things go wrong.

These allegations become even more plausible in view of the vehement resistance of the committee to introduce the changes to make the processes independent and free from its control AS RECOMMENDED BY THE working Group’s proposals despite Lion group’s total co-operation to comply with these proposals.

The Lion group appeals to the Sangat to compel the committee to be reasonable and convert the forthcoming February 2008 AGM to an EGM where all the controversial issues can be addressed by the general body and let democratic consensus prevail. The Lion Group’s objective has always been and continues to be:

To diligently work with honesty and commitment in line with our Sikh duty to introduce fair, democratic and transparent processes in the administration of the Gurdwara so that conflict, misunderstandings and abuse of authority are eliminated and replaced by a true spirit of Seva inline with the humility and truthfulness enshrined in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

We humbly seek Guru’s guidance and help from all our Sikh brothers to free this Gurdwara from misadministration of the past years under an unhealthy domination by few families.