Gabhru Panjab De Bhangra Dancers, a group which was founded and run by the community for the community in 1988, is this year celebrating its 25th anniversary.

It is with deep regret that at a time of great celebration a few ex-members who were taught to dance, sing and play dhol by Gabhru Panjab De have resorted to a dirty tricks campaign, through Facebook and Twitter, aimed specifically at the Gabhru Panjab De and the founder members of the Group. This clearly shows their true colours, immature behaviour and demonstrates their lack of professionalism. We would like to use this opportunity to put the record straight.

The very foundations of Gabhru Panjab De (GPD) have always been to develop a culture that reflects our core values of collaboration, openness, respect, empowerment and builds upon our core values of integrity, trust and service. Sadly some ex-members did not adopted this culture and we would like to state openly, Gabhru Panjab De have a zero tolerance on bullying and/or harassment and this will not be tolerated, with the relevant authorities informed if this continues.

In a bid to ride on the back of the established and respected name of Gabhru Panjab De and for personal gain only, the above mentioned former ex members who have been now removed from the group have attempted to start another group with the same name as Gabhru Panjab De with the word ‘Official’ added to the name. The senior members of the Group are now in the process of taking formal legal advice on this matter and until then we are unable to issue any further information at this time.

We have issued this statement that has the full support of all the past and present Gabhru Panjab De members and the majority of the Asian Music Industry to inform you of this very unfortunate and worrying development and to assure you that we will do everything in our powers to ensure the good name of Gabhru Panjab De is preserved.

Gabhru Panjab De Code of Conduct defines standards of ethical and professional conduct that is required of every individual in the group in any capacity, the outcomes we are committed to, and the behaviours that are unacceptable will not be endured.

Bindi Sandhu (original founder of the group) and Popeye Cheema (ex-manager) have returned to support Aki Sandhu (manager) and all the team to bring back the respect and dignity that the group has always enjoyed amongst the community. We have now taken back full control of Gabhru Panjab De.

In our 25-year history, we have had hundreds of people join and leave the group. Today we proud to have over 40+ active members of Gabhru Panjab De ranging from all ages, with four teams: 5-10 year olds, 11-16 year olds, 16-20 year olds and 21+. We hope you will come together and carry on supporting Gabhru Panjab De in the way majority of you have done in the past and present.

Join us in celebrating 25 years of excellence in entertainment that has deep roots in all communities, which we should all be very proud of.

You can follow Gabhru Panjab De here:

www.twitter.com/gpd_bhangra
www.facebook.com/GabhruBhangra
www.instagram.com/GabhruPanjabDe
www.gpdbhangra.tumblr.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/gpdbhangra
www.pinterest.com/gpdbhangra/