News Coverage of Discrimination Case 

The Express and Star article has brought much needed attention to a significant issue within the community. For a number of years the issue of discrimination against disabled people has been ignored and has further degenerated at GNSG.

A number of baseless claims, again without evidence have been made to rubbish the issues brought up by the article. To summarise, to date any action taken by the committee in regards to provisions for disabled people has been without any consultation. This includes the erection of screens. No letters or correspondence exists evidencing a consultation or request by the disabled people, only a petition against it.

The following questions are still left unanswered.

This is further explored in the rest of this article.

The Disability Discrimination case covered by the Express & Star can be read at the following link:-

The Wolverhampton Sikh Forum are grateful for the Express & Star in highlighting the issues the congregation of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara (GNSG) are having with the Management Committee of the Gurdwara. But we would like to elaborate and clarify some of the points made in the article.

No Lift

One point we would like to clarify is that there is no lift available to the main Darbar where the majority of the congregation goes. There is a lift in one of the other halls that is predominantly used for weddings of a weekend, but this lift has rarely been seen working by our members. And even if it were in regular working order, there is no access to the main Darbar via this hall.

No Consultation

The main issue, however, is the fact that even after this management committee approved the installation of seating for the disabled and the elderly, they decided without consultation to erect the segregating screens. Once members of the congregation learned about these plans, they immediately contacted the management committee to find out whether the rumours were true and what their reasoning was. But these female members of the congregation were insulted and ridiculed by a couple of senior management committee members before it was confirmed that the rumours were true. You can read more about this from the following link : 

Not happy with this, the ladies who had complained began a petition for which they managed to get over 600 signatures in just two days. There would have been more but the ladies were physically pushed as they had the papers snatched from them and thrown outside and told to leave by a committee member, as they did not seek permission from the management committee first. It was only after members of the congregation observed his behaviour towards these retired elderly ladies they intervened. You can read more about this on the below link:

Our questions are and have always been, if their defence is that "we are going to make a new £2 million building that will address all the accessibility issues" :

1. Why can't they take the screens down immediately ? This would be a costless intervention and does bring up the following questions
2. Why weren't the congregation consulted before over £5000 was spent erecting these screens when they knew they would have to be taken down once work began on this new building anyway?
3. Why couldn't this money have been spent on installing a temporary stair lift instead ?
4. Why did they not take into account the petition from the congregation that showed the support of over 600 people in just two days not wanting these screens erected?
5. Is this not a waste of the congregations money? 
6. Why do they feel that they are above being held accountable for their actions and mis-management?

Akaal Takht

To this day they ( the management committee ) have been unable to tell anybody the significance of those screens, which is not highlighted at all in this article. A response has been given that Akaal Takht guidelines are being followed. This brings up the following question,

7. Which specific Akaal Takht guidelines are actually being followed? 

As already shown in previous posts that the Akaal Takht Sahib's Jathedar is shown sitting on a stage in front of a large gathering who are all sitting on the floor and right in front of the stage there are two very powerful men sitting on chairs ( Punjab PM Badal and SGPC President Makkar). So we ask again what do they mean when they keep saying they are following the Akaal Takht? This again is just another ploy to bamboozle people who may not be aware or sure of what the Akaal Takht says about this (in reality is nothing ). 

The other defence we have heard them use numerous times verbally but wasn't mentioned to the Express & Star is that they (certain members of the management committee) feel that chairs or benches are not allowed in the Darbar  Sahib as people would be sitting higher than the Guru Granth Sahib and the rest of the Congregation. This was the exact excuse used by the men who smashed the benches in the Darbar Sahib as a justification for their actions. If this is the case then, 

8. why are there balconies in nearly all Historical Gurdwara's in India , the Akaal Takht and Harmandir Sahib being two of them ?

Are the congregation not sitting higher than the Guru Granth Sahib and the rest of the congregation when they are looking down from the balcony as shown in the photographs above to the right and below. Some one took these photographs from a balcony, yet these people feel its some kind of blasphemy/insult if an elderly or disabled person is seen to sit on a chair or bench. We and many many other Sikhs find these nonsensical and uninformed views unbelievable, which is why  we have taken the steps to make a stand against these un-Sikh, unlawful and ridiculous rules. The Disabled and Elderly do not come to the Gurdwara WANTING to sit on chairs or sit higher than anybody else, It is ONLY out of necessity they sit on chairs. Physical disabilities, should not exclude people from equal spiritual practice.

Reasonable Adjustments

The article also mentions comments from their 'unnamed spokesman' as follows:- "We make as far as possibly practical reasonable adjustments that are also consistent with our practices to accommodate people with disabilities taking account of our faith's traditions."

Lets examine the above statement in more detail with a reasoned, logical approach. What are these 'reasonable adjustments' they are talking about ? The ones that are 'consistent with OUR practices' which practices are they talking about here ? and finally which of our faith's traditions have they taken into account in regards to disabilities? 

The statement sounds quite credible on first reading until you break it down and actually think about what they are actually trying to say. This is when it all falls apart as it is a very political, vague, uncommitted answer that they can twist and re-interpret later if required. They must think if they talk enough credible sounding rubbish they can avoid answering the real questions of why they feel they MUST segregate disabled and elderly people who cannot sit on the floor any more?

£2 million Revamp

Another couple of quotes from the article " the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee have over the years provided a series of 'reasonable adjustments' which cater for those who are unable to be seated in the two main areas of the Gurdwara " and " These provisions will be modernised once the approved new building costing nearly two million pounds is constructed this year ".

Now lets take a look at these statements which imply that the 'reasonable adjustments' they are talking about here are actually the seating and tables hidden behind screens. The only thing we take from this is that they are actually confirming that the segregating screens are 'reasonable adjustments' which they are planning on modernising. Modernise? What are they going to do install oneway mirror glass, so that the disabled/elderly can see out but can't be seen themselves by the rest of the congregation or are they going to use large screens for them to view the Darbar Sahib from a remote location? again neatly hiding them away from sight. These statements are just more fanciful misdirection, which are meant to sound reasonable to outsiders who know nothing about the history of how we have come to this juncture in the first place, which is another very very important point the article fails to mention.

Transparency & Accountability

The Sikh Forum have spent nearly two years trying to resolve this matter with a year before that of individuals trying to tackle the problem. Initially members just tried to speak to the men in charge reasonably as already mentioned above, but the real problem with speaking to these individuals is that there words are worth nothing as they denied ever speaking to you or making any comments to you. So we decided to make it more formal and evidential by writing to them about the various other issues we could see with the management of the Gurdwara and asked for them to respond to us in writing so that they were no longer able to go back on what they say, to which we have not received any replies  from them to this day. Rather than state something they could be held accountable for in the future they have remained silent and just ignored our concerns and letters. 

Is this any way to run/manage a charity or any organisation for that matter? Where is the transparency and most importantly the accountability? 

It was only after the management committee totally refused to answer any of our letters that we decided to publish all our correspondence online on this site to bring the these important issues to the attention of the wider congregation and general public to try and push for some sort of dialog with these people. But even then they tried intimidation and other underhanded tactics against forum members which can be read about on the link below: 

It is very unfortunate that it has had to come down to a civil court case to resolve this matter and we are aware that there are many people that reading about this for the first time who are thinking, why couldn't this be resolved in house by sitting around a table? This is very good question which is easily answered if you read this website, which has a written chronological record of all our attempts to try and speak to this management committee in a professional, civilised manner but it is they who have left us with no other option. 

As you will see from the many letters we have sent to try and engage with these people, we have spent two years of trying to avoid this very situation exhausting every peaceful means possible.

Local MP's

We initially approached our two local MP's in around May 2014 to try and talk some sense into the management committee to try and force them to come to the table and one of them was even willing to assist in the mediation process, but they were either ignored or abused by certain individuals for trying to intervene. One of the MP's even received a fraudulent letter in the presidents name that was not even signed or on the Gurdwara's letter head, trying to make out that the matter had now been resolved and he need not look into the matter any further. Evidence of this can be seen from the following link: 

Local Council

We then approached our local council in June 2014 to try and intervene hoping this might bring them to the table, but unfortunately even after receiving a full report highlighting their unlawful behaviour the management committee even decided to ignore their report. So what chance did we still really have of try and talk to such people.  The Councils report can be read below:

Trustees

We then took the matter to the Trustees of the Gurdwara to call for an Open General Meeting so that our concerns about the management committee and their actions could be presented before the whole congregation. So that the matters could be resolved either by resolution or by just removing such an incompetent management committee that were not even capable of responding to letters of concern to them by the congregation that they are supposed to be serving.

It was when the Trustees tried to approach the president and vice president so ask some very legitimate questions they were told to go and do what ever they wanted as they (the committee) will do as they please and there was nothing they could do about it. It was only after this absolute arrogance and refusal to try and sort this out amicably the Sikh Forum had no other option left open to them but to support members of the congregation to take up this case against the management committee.

This is a point not made clear enough in the article which is what we would like the congregation to the understand fully. As this article has attracted some negative responses from ill-informed members of the congregation who are spreading misinformation and slander against the Sikh Forum and our members. Please read the letters from trustees on the link below:

Civil Action

On the 18th December 2014 the Gurdwara received a letter from our solicitor warning them of impending legal action if they did not take step to resolve the matter. The management committee just again ignored the letter, is this sounding familiar, we still hoped that this might spur them into action to at least remove the screen even if they did not want to speak about the matter. But reluctantly the final letter warning them that papers were going to be filed at court was sent out in March 2015, which still gave them more than enough time to resolve this matter amicably if they had so wished. Once the papers where filed with the court they were served on the management committee on the 17th March 2015 and were given until the 31st March to reply. Once they actually had no choice to seek legal advice their solicitor has asked for a further 28 days to prepare a defence case? We understand that solicitors and courts have their way of doing things, but one has to ask what had they been doing since December 2014 when they had their first warning of impending legal action? We think they were probably hoping they would no longer be in the committee any more by then so would have to face up to their mis-management of the Gurdwara and just ignore it ever happened.

As you have read we have had no other choice left open to us, but to take up this case only after all our other attempts had failed to try and engage with these people. We are also very aware of the propaganda machine of the management committee working away on facebook and other sites trying to muddy the waters and confuse the situation with various accusations and slander, swearing and being abusive to anybody that dare to comment on the matter that does not agree with them. 

These people can make all the accusations they like and make what ever ridiculous comments they wish to, but none of them can give any reason or justification for those screens being up segregating the congregation on lines of their physical ability to sit on the floor or not.

These photographs are from the 20th November 2014, this is where they expect the disabled and elderly to sit.