An investigation into the controversy surrounding the treatment of female employees during a private visit by the Hindu organisation BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha to the Eiffel Tower has found no evidence that the delegation explicitly asked for women to be removed, hidden or excluded.
The General Inspectorate of the City of Paris found that there had been “no explicit request” from the BAPS delegation to remove female staff, AFP reported, with the inquiry instead pointing to a “collective dysfunction” in the way instructions were communicated ahead of the September 5 visit.
According to Le Parisien, investigators found no written request, email or other document from BAPS seeking the removal or sidelining of female employees. The report said there was “not a single written document, not a single email expressing this opinion”, and that the decisions were made “between consenting adults”.
A Parisian elected official cited by the newspaper said an instruction had become distorted as it was passed verbally between those involved in organising the visit.
“By having an instruction circulate by word of mouth, the message got distorted. Until we reached these failures,” the official said.
BAPS Paris welcomed the findings on Thursday, saying they confirmed the position it had maintained since the controversy erupted.
In a statement, the organisation said: “Following the publication of the official investigation findings concerning our delegation's visit to the Eiffel Tower, BAPS wishes first to reiterate its concern for the employees affected by the events surrounding the visit.
“From the outset, BAPS has consistently stated that it never asked for female employees to be hidden, removed or excluded. The investigation establishes this fact that BAPS made no such request for women to be excluded along the visitor route.
“We hope this clarification will contribute to a better understanding of the circumstances and allow everyone involved to move forward respectfully.”
BAPS saint says group chose silence during row
A senior BAPS saint has said the organisation deliberately chose not to retaliate during the controversy and instead allowed the investigations to establish what happened.
Speaking from London in a television interview with Indian broadcaster Arnab Goswami recently, Swami Brahmaviharidas said BAPS monks had followed a spiritual discipline of responding to criticism with restraint rather than confrontation. “Even if anybody abuses, hurts, persecutes us, we will not react back,” he said. “Instead, we have to pray for people who persecute us.”
He said BAPS spiritual leader His Holiness Pujya Mahant Swami Maharaj had instructed the monks to remain silent and allow the investigations to run their course.
Swami Brahmaviharidas, who oversaw the construction of the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi, also rejected allegations that the organisation was anti-women. He pointed to BAPS founder Bhagwan Swaminarayan’s opposition, around 250 years ago, to practices including female infanticide and sati, in which widows died on their husbands’ funeral pyres.
“When our founder protected women right from their birth to the end of their lives, how can any activity be anti-women?” he asked. He said women make up more than 60 per cent of BAPS followers and that the organisation’s volunteers serve communities during disasters without “any differentiation” based on gender, caste or creed.
The senior saint described the allegations surrounding the Eiffel Tower visit as having been “concocted, distorted for perhaps an ulterior reason”. However, when asked whether he believed there was a wider conspiracy, he said he preferred to rely on facts rather than opinions.
“Those who know us, they know us,” he said.
Concluding the interview, Swami Brahmaviharidas said Mahant Swami Maharaj wanted everyone to “move forward positively” and had offered prayers for Paris, France and the Eiffel Tower’s employees.
“Let bygones be bygones,” he said, describing the new BAPS temple in Paris as “a home of harmony”.
Asian Voice and its readers have rallied behind BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha amid the Eiffel Tower controversy, with several readers writing in support of the organisation. Manoj Patel, a recent correspondent, said Bhagwan Swaminarayan had required monks to observe celibacy and avoid looking at women as an expression of respect. He also highlighted the revered status of women in Hindu culture, citing the maxim “Matru Devo Bhavah” — “the mother is divine” — and describing motherhood as a source of boundless power, reverence and divinity.
Staff walkout sparked political backlash
The findings follow a controversy that prompted a staff walkout, the temporary closure of the Eiffel Tower and criticism from politicians across France’s political spectrum.
The dispute began after female employees were reportedly removed from their posts or replaced by male colleagues during the BAPS delegation’s visit. On September 7, Eiffel Tower staff staged a brief strike to protest the treatment of their female colleagues.
Employees alleged that workplace instructions had resulted in women being “sidelined, replaced and rendered invisible” because of their sex. Some were reportedly instructed to withdraw from their positions or remain away from certain areas while the delegation was inside the monument.
The incident provoked a strong political reaction in France, where gender equality is regarded as a fundamental principle. Politicians described the alleged treatment of female employees as unacceptable and stressed that the country’s commitment to equality was non-negotiable.
At the time, the company operating the Eiffel Tower, SETE, said the delegation had requested that the visit be organised to limit “interactions with women”. It acknowledged that such conditions “should not have been accepted”.
BAPS, however, denied making such a request. In an earlier statement, the organisation said it respected the concerns raised by Eiffel Tower employees and was taking them “very seriously”. It also said that, to the best of its knowledge, no one had been prevented from accessing the Eiffel Tower.
The latest investigation appears to draw a distinction between an alleged requirement from the visiting delegation and the decisions subsequently made by those responsible for organising and managing the visit.
Rather than finding evidence of a direct written instruction from BAPS, investigators pointed to failures in communication and the way instructions were interpreted and implemented by Eiffel Tower personnel.
Eiffel Tower chief to leave role
The controversy has also resulted in the departure of Patrick Branco Ruivo, chief executive of SETE.
SETE said an internal investigation had identified “operational flaws and shortcomings” in the organisation of the visit and described the resulting removal of female employees as “unacceptable”.
Branco Ruivo is due to leave his position at the end of the year. Le Parisien reported that he resigned in order to “protect the employees and preserve the team”.
His departure came after the internal inquiry placed responsibility on operational failures surrounding the visit, rather than establishing that BAPS had directly instructed the tower to remove female staff.
The findings therefore shift the focus of the dispute. While the treatment of women employees remains at the centre of criticism of how the visit was handled, the city investigation found no documentary evidence that BAPS itself demanded their exclusion.
For BAPS, the conclusion provides support for its repeated denial that it had sought to remove or conceal female employees. For the Eiffel Tower’s management, meanwhile, the controversy has exposed serious shortcomings in the communication and implementation of instructions during private visits.
