The Bangalore Turf Club has time and again acted without thought and has been forced to reverse its decisions. The leadership of the club has been woefully inadequate which has time and again been reflected in the series of embarrassing decisions taken by the committee. The Chairman Harimohan Naidu has been unable to offer purposeful leadership. During his term, the reputation of the club has gone for a toss.

Recently, one of the Stipes Ravishankar was placed under suspension and given a charge sheet. His crime: He disclosed that he was offered a bribe to soft-pedal an inquiry into racing malpractice. One of the Stewards Kiran Basappa who was keen on soft-pedalling the issue, was upset with the Stipe`s suggestion for a deterrent punishment and demanded that the Stipe be placed under suspension instead of the erring professionals!

Ravishankar was slapped with a show cause notice which read: ``It has been observed and reported against you that you have concealed certain material information during the enquiry conducted on 17th March 2019 against trainer V Narayana Gowda and jockey Kiran Rai with regard to the running of Wings Of Fortune in Race No 90 during the Bangalore Winter Meeting 2017-18. It was further noticed that you chose to inform certain information to the Stewards of the club pertaining to the enquiry only after the conclusion of the enquiry, the conduct of which by itself is highly questionable. The Stewards have come to a prima facie conclusion that your conduct during the entire process relating to the said enquiry amounts to Gross Misconduct as per Company`s Service Rules.`` Interestingly, the Stipe had reported the matter to his department head. The Stewards forgot that the protocol demands that a Stipe cannot directly interact with the Stewards unless asked for and he must work under the department head. One of the charges against Ravishankar was that of ``disclosing to any unauthorized person or persons any information in regard to the working of the club which comes to his knowledge or possession during the course of his employment.`` Did the Stewards believe that disclosing information to the Chief Stipendiary Steward was disclosing information to an unauthorized person?

The Stewards perhaps expected their legal advisors to praise them for their brilliance but were shocked when told that their decision doesn`t stand legal scrutiny. One of the legal advisors even went to the extent of telling the Stewards that the club can`t even proceed with the enquiry. One of the former Managing Committee members Dayanand Mandre queered the pitch by writing a letter against one of the Stewards Kiran Basappa and questioned his motive in defending aggressively the professionals under scrutiny.

Now faced with an embarrassing situation, the Managing Committee of the Bangalore Turf Club beat a hasty retreat and decided to drop all the charges against Ravishankar and asked him to report for work with the immediate effect after first suspending him and then asking him to go on forced leave.

Leadership is a way of thinking, a way of acting and, most importantly, a way of communicating.
A leader`s job is to help his team to figure things out. As a leader one is expected to be an inspiration for the others to think right and act positive but not to yield to everything that is unreasonable only because you want to stay put in that position. The quality of the leader is also reflected in the standard he sets for himself. Do you think that the Chairman fits the bill?