In a recent dispute erupted at Gurdwara Sahib, Keysborough where a Committee Member allegedly spoke insulting words and made mockery of Guru Gobind Singh ji, sangat & bana, a meeting to resolve this conflict was held on 8th February inside Gurdwara premises.
The Sikh Sangat from all over Australia has been shocked at this blasphemy of Guru Sahib and Sangat. In lieu of the impending blasphemy, a meeting was held at Gurudwara Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Keysborough where the Sikh Sangat decided to seek Guru Granth Sahib Ji’s guidance.
A huge gathering of Sikh Sangat and representatives of various Sikh organizations were present at this meeting. Out of 11 members of the Gurdwara Management Committee, eight members of the committee were present at the meeting while the ninth alleged member Nirmal Dhillon kept himself away from this meeting and two of the members were overseas. The meeting was attended by at least 700 members of the local Sikh Community, who demanded the committee to boycott alleged committee member and expel him from his Gurdwara secretary position.
It was decided unanimously that the Sangat would resort to peaceful discussion over the burning matter and utmost care will be taken to maintain Dhan Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji’s respect.
For those who are unaware of the issue, we suggest you to read this link for background info:
Keysborough Gurdwara Committee Apostate insults Guru, Sangat & Bana
The Sangat performed Ardas and took a Hukamnama from Guru Granth Sahib Ji before starting the discussion. During this meeting, the stage secretary of the Gurdwara Sahib, Bhai Harman Singh addressed the sangat with the original issue during which the incident occurred. Bhai Harman Singh was very emotional and in tears during his speech and was falling short of words while presenting the case of insulting vocabulary used by the alleged committee member.
In his statement, he advised sangat that before today’s meeting, he did contact other committee members and also Nirmal Dhillon to find out their views about the incident as he was really disturbed over the blasphemy of His Guru. During his conversation, he did find that some other committee members were also concerned over the act of Nirmal Dhillon however they were not willing to show their support openly. As per Harman Singh, Nirmal Dhillon on the other hand did admit that he spoke of those words out of anger in the meeting.
Interestingly the reasons behind this anger were also found to be linked with some previous cracks that had occured between Sikh Sangat and Nirmal Dhillon. Bhai Harman Singh invited one person from Sangat over the stage to present one such incident before the sangat.
It is also to be noticed that the alleged committee member along with two others had lodged a police complaint against 25 men including Harman Singh, however the police has now reverted these charges after coming across and understanding the whole situation.
One of the Sangat spokesmen Daljeet Singh, President Sikh Student Federation Australia, who was also present during the meeting, raised questions over the appointment of such persons within the committee management. He strongly suggested that such persons should not be requested for making any compromises but instead should be kicked off the committee and socially boycotted. He also pointed to such committee dictatorships happening in other Australian gurdwaras as well where he reminded the sangat with a past protest lead by Baagi Singh from Melbourne and a recent issue against Committee members of Gurdwara Sahib Craigieburn in Melbourne.
Bhai Joga Singh from Khalsa Shouni, Shepparton also addressed to the sangat giving evidences about the condition of Guru Nindaks during Guru Nanak Dev ji’s era.
Women representatives from Sangat also addressed and expressed their emotions out of anger against past committee members where they presented some serious allegations against one of the past Gurdwara president.
Overall the meeting went peacefully though there were some warring words used by both sides for a part of the meeting.
Police was also called to the Gurdwara Sahib by some committee members with the statement that Harman Singh had invited Singhs with prohibitory weapons from Melbourne as well as other parts of the country. Police arrived at the scene about 15 minutes before the meeting had concluded. However Police was satisfied over no such evidence at the premises, so no police action took place.
The meeting was concluded with the words that Nirmal Dhillon will resign from the committee position and the decision of resignation will be finalized by 22nd Febraury on the return of two committee members from overseas.
According to a latest information, the eight members of the Keysborough Gurdwara Committee have planned another meeting on 9th Febraury where they are going to purposely eliminate Harman Singh out of the committee.
Sadly, it looks like some people want to keep Gurdwara as a social hub where people just come for casual meet and greet.
Today Sikh issues are blooming as If there is a court battle, what will be the outcome? The time has come for Sikhs to conduct a membership process and an election in such a way that its members can have confidence that those processes are fair and conducted in an impartial manner.
Now, is that really that difficult to implement?
SinghStation strongly condemns the sacrilege of Guru Sahib and Sikh Sangat. We demand Gurdwara Committee to deliver justice in this case and punish the culprits. At the same time, Sikh Sangat Australia is requested to stay united and maintain peace over this issue.
Sangat is requested to share any further info or pictures relating to this event at info@singhstation.net