The majority of BTC members voted against amending the Articles of Association to increase the strength of the membership of the club by 50 and give these to the government nominees. The Special General Body Meeting called to vote for the resolution on Wednesday turned out to be a damp squib. Only four members as identified by the majority namely Dr Srinivasa Gowda, Sanjay Reddy, Dr Ravindra and Capt Lingaraju voted in support of the resolution while the rest voted against the resolution. The voting was by show of hands and possibly some hands froze!

What was shocking was the fact that the turf club has about 40 horse owning members but they too did not support the resolution. Perhaps they did not want to be seen voting for the resolution for fear of affecting their prospects in elections. Even if the majority were against the resolution, at least those who believed that broad basing of membership was the need of the hour could have reacted differently even in the face of defeat. The defeat of the resolution indicated that there were no well-meaning members among the majority and that they believe that they are fighting the strong-arm tactics of the government even it meant compromising the sport and bringing the activities to a standstill. What was more shocking was the fact that the resolution went through without as much as a meaningful discussion about the issue, why it was being rejected and the financial implications on the sport as also the suffering inflicted on those dependent on the sport besides putting the industry into a mess. All the three resolutions were defeated in one go. The first was to increase the membership by 50; the second was to give it to the government nominees, and the third was to increase the admission fee for membership to Rs 5 lakhs.

Unfortunately, with the influx of new members who have very little interest in racing, BTC has become like a social club resulting in the sport becoming a matter of minor importance. The members don’t mind the cost of their action. They have caused damage to the edifice of the sport and hurt the finances of other clubs as well. Besides the loss that would be suffered by BTC, the other clubs in the country also stand to lose substantially. A club like RWITC would lose to the extent of Rs 10 crores because of stoppage of racing in Bangalore and the payment of royalty on their races. Similarly, the turf clubs in the country would also be hit hard. The majority of those who voted against the resolution were not even aware of what the issue was except that they had come only to vote against the resolution. They simply had no understanding of the issue.

The Bangalore Turf Club will be approaching the High Court seeking a writ of Mandamus. A “Mandamus Action” is a lawsuit used to compel someone, such as an officer or employee of the government, to act on an administrative matter that is not discretionary; where they have a legal duty to do so and have not. The government has denied the license following accusations of wrong doings by the Chairman of the Club followed by a police complaint by a racehorse owner of a cover-up operation of a ''doping’’ offence. The Chief Minister of the State ordered a CID inquiry into the affairs of the club and the report is pending finalization.

The Chief Minister has said that the license for BTC had not been given because of the on-going enquiry. The membership issue was always on the horizon for the last several years and when the license was denied during the summer season, the committee gave an undertaking to increase the membership. The summer season was thus saved. The committee failed to get the resolution passed and resigned. The new committee was aware of the mood of the members. Still they wrote to the government for permission to increase membership by 50 when they could have straightaway resorted to legal remedy. The committee wasted 50 days to put to vote a resolution which was certain to be rejected.

Chairman of the Bangalore Turf Club Harimohan Naidu said that the club was confident of getting an interim stay within a fortnight. One hopes he is proved right.

It is difficult to expect a remedy in a short time. The racing activities stopped on September 1 and the club did not initiate any action to get the license. The writ petition would have had a sense of urgency if the club had approached the court on September 1 itself to prevent stoppage of activities. The club is initiating court action after more than two months which itself indicates that there is no urgency in hearing the matter on a priority. The delay in filing the suit itself could go against the club in obtaining an early resolution to the issue. One cannot speculate as to how long it will take to get any relief in the light of the shortage of judges in the High Court and whether the issue of BTC’s license would get prioritized by the court. Suffice to say that the time lost in the bargain would crucially affect the winter season. The Trainers Association will also be filing a writ against the government though one is not sure whether they have any locus standi on the matter.

Just like the punters tend to press on the self-destruction button while chasing the mirage of money, the Bangalore Turf Club members have also followed suit, in the hope that they are fighting a battle of honor with the government. Perhaps there is something very romantic about self-destruction because the overwhelming number of members voted for racing to be sabotaged.