MARGAO: Chaos erupted during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Gomantak Bhandari Samaj that was held in Pajifond, Margao on Sunday, which had to be adjourned after the society’s President Ashok Naik left the venue.
Naik, who came in for severe open criticism during the proceedings of the meeting, failed to satisfactorily respond to the allegations that were being made about how the committee that was chairing the meeting was allegedly illegal.
The crux of the issue was that the committee led by Naik had got re-elected for its second tenure, allegedly illegally as the same election took place in an online meeting in August 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic even though there is no provision in the constitution of the society to do so.
The main focus was on the alleged illegal appointment of Naik as the president.
Earlier this week, activist Upendra Gaonkar had addressed the media where he had spoken about these issues about how the committee was allegedly elected illegally. Gaonkar had also urged fellow society members to join him in questioning and even boycotting the committee.
It was Gaonkar’s allegation that the only selected people and that too just a small number of members were invited for the online meeting that was held to elect Naik as the President and that such voting was illegal and contravened the rules of the organisation.
This was followed by a rebuke on social media by Naik who justified that the committee was indeed legal. Naik had even alleged that the committee before him was involved in some financial irregularity wherein deposits were not made in their accounts properly and the attempt to disrupt the AGM was intended to cover up these alleged issues.
Thereafter, on Sunday, at the beginning of the meeting, where around 200 members were present, while the minutes were being read, there were heated arguments.
with questions being raised that the AGM itself was illegal.
Gaonkar and others started questioning Naik over the validity of the committee, his post as President as well as the posts of Secretary and General Secretary, which had been made without the consent of the General Assembly.
There were also demands that those who had been appointed illegally step down.
It was also pointed out that the attendance during the controversial online meeting was much smaller compared to previous meetings that were held offline to elect the committee and the President.
It was also alleged that Naik had lied about the size of those who attended the online meeting and had allegedly tried to falsely portray that it was widely attended.
Gaonkar had pointed out that the tenure of the committee led by Naik was from 2018-2021 and that the committee formed thereafter until the present date of 2023 was invalid.
Various decisions taken up by the committee were also criticised.
There were also heated arguments about who had signed certain official documents and alleged hidden agenda behind the same to benefit the committee members.
It was also evident that there were two factions within the Bhandari samaj, which also escalated the matter where accusations and counter accusations were exchanged.
In his defense, the President Naik said all the meetings were being conducted online during the pandemic and referred to how Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the Chief Justice of India had official meetings online and asked if these were then illegal also because it was held online and not offline.
He further pointed out that he had received permission from the Deputy Collector to hold the meeting online.
In the end, after being bombarded with questions aggressively, Naik and some of the office bearers left the hall abruptly and the meeting was adjourned.
