New Delhi: The power struggle at Delhi’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia (FCC) continues. Interim president and general secretary Simran Sodhi and Sanjay Kumar have been “expelled” by the club’s governing council (GC).
S. Venkat Narayan, who was ‘ousted’ as president of the club earlier this month, has written to both members about the findings of the GC during its investigation.
Three days earlier, eight members of the FCC had in an emergency meeting of the managing committee unanimously passed a ‘no-confidence vote’ ousting Narayan as president, along with vice-president Waiel Awwad, a senior international independent journalist from Syria, and general secretary Prakash Nanda. Foreign affairs analyst Sodhi was chosen as interim president and Arab News’ India correspondent Kumar as interim general secretary.
Narayan’s letter to both members, dated 15 October, states: “They say (two of the eight members) they were forced to sign your so-called resolution whose contents they were not even shown, and did not know.” ThePrint has seen the letter.
It adds that of the eight members, the membership of one had expired in March this year, leaving him ineligible to vote or sign any resolution. “This brings your so-called majority down to five and, therefore, a minority,” Narayan further wrote.
Speaking to ThePrint, Kumar said the expulsion notices were “reactionary moves” and prove that “Venkat and [Prakash] Nanda have not been acting in a democratic spirit of accommodation and consensus-building”.
He asserted that the majority of club members expressed no confidence against Narayan and his team. Calling the expulsion “absurd” and “ludicrous”, he said that a committee that had lost the mandate and confidence of the majority of governing members did not have the legitimacy to expel anyone.
In his letter, Narayan also said that the emergency meeting was not valid according to the FCC’s constitution and by-laws, which mandate that only the president has the authority to call such a meeting.
“Besides, you claim that you were not told that it is the FCC’s turn to host the IAPC assembly this year. This was clearly stated by FCC Secretary Mr Prakash Nanda in the AGM of July 20, 2024, whose proceedings were duly videographed, and shared with you and circulated. The Secretary had clearly stated that the FCC may incur a maximum expenditure of Rs 3 lakh. The AGM had approved it,” he said in the letter, adding that the claim that money was being spent in the name of the FCC hosting the IAPC assembly was “blatantly false”.
The FCC is a member of the International Association of Press Clubs (IAPC)—a collaboration of over 40 small clubs across more than 35 countries.
“Your letter to the IAPC General Secretary and some member clubs of the IAPC claiming that the President and Vice-President had misused the funds allocated for hosting the IAPC Assembly in New Delhi is also false, and has caused a lot of damage to the FCC and to the President and Vice-President, who are veteran journalists highly regarded by the journalistic community at home and abroad,” Narayan wrote.
“It is preposterous that you are calling an AGM on October 19, 2024. You have no authority to do so. Only the president has the power to call an AGM after giving a two-week due notice,” he added. “In view of the above, the GC hereby expels both of you with immediate effect.”
Kumar told ThePrint that “one thing that we also questioned is the legitimacy of Venkat’s and Nanda’s foreign correspondent status”.
“Venkat has been an irregular columnist with a Sri Lankan newspaper and that does not entitle him to be a foreign correspondent. Nanda edits a website that publishes articles on foreign policy. How come he is a foreign correspondent?” he asked.
He further said that the aggrieved members wanted to find a middle ground in the spirit of camaraderie to serve the larger interests of the club and make the place a space for foreign journalists once again as well as reclaim it as a platform where Indian journalists can interact with foreign media.
In another letter addressed to FCC members on 15 October, Narayan stated that due to circumstances beyond control, the IAPC assembly, which was scheduled to be held in New Delhi next month, was being postponed indefinitely.
“We are in touch with the IAPC Secretariat in Warsaw. We will reschedule it at a mutually convenient time,” he wrote. ThePrint has seen the letter.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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