The Pandemic at the beginning of the year was bad news. Our life turned upside down. Horse racing is facing an uncertain future. We are not sure when we can get back to normalcy. Under such circumstances, one expected the authorities at the helm to act with reason. Much to everyone`s disappointment, the administrators are making a series of errors that it is getting irritating even to write about these shenanigans.

``Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow`` said a learned man. Perhaps that is the only way that one can turn a blind eye to the happenings at the BTC. After making a series of questionable decisions in the last few months which they were either forced to drop or revise, the committee went on an ill-advised move to have more than 40 special resolutions and some amendment to the Articles of the Association through a postal ballot citing coronavirus and stating that a physical general body meeting was not possible under the circumstances. The Managing Committee also postponed the scheduled elections by three months thus prolonging the stay of the retiring members. The committee faced an embarrassing defeat as all the resolutions were defeated by the members. There was less shame involved in withdrawing the resolutions rather than face an embarrassing defeat. The continuance of the committee becomes untenable as the members have overwhelmingly expressed their no-confidence in the committee`s actions and decisions.

One could not understand the hurry for clubbing so many resolutions for consideration when many of the resolutions needed a debate before acceptance or otherwise of the members. The Managing Committee was so arrogant that it did not give heed to the memorandum submitted by about 50 odd members to postpone the meeting. The memorandum among other things highlighted the defective nature of the resolutions as also the controversial ones which were sought to be incorporated in the Articles of Association limiting the powers of the government nominated directors. The controversial amendments mercifully have been defeated.

The Managing Committee led by Vinod Sivappa who is an ineffective chairman went ahead because of the insistence of others in the committee like Harimohan Naidu, Kiran Basappa and Uday Eshwaran. The others in the committee are either faceless or voiceless. What is shocking is that the BTC which pays large sums of money for getting a legal opinion on everything under the sun did not do a proper exercise as many of the resolutions were defective in nature as accepted by the subsequent letter written by the club to one of the members who had pointed out the flaws. As one of the members said: ``the club can be faulted for pursuing with patently invalid resolutions, despite the lacunae having been pointed out in writing.``

Some years ago the committee headed by Jagannath had moved an amendment to the Articles of the Association for increasing the membership. When it was clear that the amendment would be defeated, almost the entire committee barring one resigned owning moral responsibility. The committee had assured the government that a special body meeting would be convened to increase the membership of the club.

The present Managing Committee should take a leaf out of the past precedent and resign accepting moral responsibility. The Managing Committee would be dubbed shameless if they continue as if nothing has happened. If they are allowed, those calling the shots are sure to create more mess by the time their term ends.

The Special EGM was necessitated to get the approval for introducing online betting and in view of various limitations; the postal ballot should have been restricted to this subject alone. The resolution would have gone through but the mischief of trying to push its agenda by some of the Managing Committee members has resulted in the most important resolution for getting the nod for online betting being defeated.

If the Managing Committee does not quit, the members should ensure that if any of these people stand for elections again, they should be given a resounding defeat. We have had enough of these people. The senior members cannot maintain their neutrality in a period of moral crisis when the actions of the committee are undoing all the good work done in the past.

If a certain category of people are governing the club, what can you hear every day other than horrible barking noises?” I hope this will be put to an end by the members.