While rebutting the allegations made by re-elected Sr. Vice President of IATO, Immediate Past President Pronab Sarker has written a letter which says it is time to work together with common agenda to accomplish. Divide and rule tactic may not deliver the desired results. Excerpts.
I am referring the interview given after the recent elections by re-elected Sr. Vice President of IATO to the ET News stating, “The image of a Delhi-centric association is not good for IATO and for its national character. The constitutional amendment is pending for more than 8 years.”
It seems, he is not aware of the role of our able Chapter Chairmen in various states spread all over India to take up issues with the respective State Governments and role of IATO head office to take up issues with the Central Government with other respective ministries.
He has not mentioned that in last three years why he did not push for the constitutional amendments when it was almost ready by October 2019. We do not understand the reason of his above statement given by such a senior office bearer, unless having some hidden agenda to reveal in future. It has taken many years of hard work put in by the past office bearers and EC that today IATO is considered one of the ‘Prestigious Association’ amongst all the association in tourism industry.
The verdict given by the membership is fractured which is the result of projecting that last EC did not deliver the results. But fact of the matter is, enormous work has been done by the EC but results are in the hands of Government and are pending.
It is the time to work together as business has not yet started and unless both the teams join together with common agenda to accomplish, it will be very bad for the association and the industry. Divide and rule tactic may not deliver the desired results. It is suggested that no such cheap politics should be adopted for popularity.
Once the elections are over, new IATO EC has to perform as one team to deliver the desired results as the agenda of both the team are more or less is same. But at this critical time, it is important to work in cohesive manner as one team, not in different directions.
At this time statement made by our Sr. Vice President, “That he faced strong resistance from the last EC when he pursued those matters.” “We cooperated last time to avoid conflict. But we will not accept such an attitude lying down any more. We will go back to the members if needed,” is very derogatory statement on part of the Sr. Vice President. He is forgetting that when he was part of EC and it was other way round expressing disagreement created by his team members and now he is threatening to go to members.
If this is the case then freedom of speech is equal to both of the teams. If such situation arose then why he was keeping quiet, now raising such issue is to provoke the ‘Moving Forward Team’ before commencing and even the first EC meeting is the sense of foul play is in store.
This year after analysing the voting pattern it is revealed that all the members did not vote for the work done by the past EC as negative canvassing was done by the opposition team. It seems the voting was done one to one on friendship basis. We repeatedly requested the membership to vote responsibly but no one gave any importance to that.
In some media it is stated that the individual performance as criterion for winning the election then what about Mr. Raj Bajaj who worked for last so many years as a dedicated solder of the Association. This is misfortune that performance was not the criteria.
I see the future working atmosphere is going to be very challenging unless both teams understand the importance of their positions. They have been elected to deliver no matter which team, the outcome of the association and take it forward is the ultimate. Unless harmony is maintained among the elected members and no provoking statements are made at both the sides, it will be the most difficult situation for the EC to satisfy the membership.
Association is bigger than self, I would request to both the teams that leave behind the ego and self promotion and take an oath to work as one team. Otherwise it seems the synergy is going to be a most difficult task to accomplish.
I am sure if both teams work together leaving behind all anomalies during the election and perform as one team then it can be a great show of togetherness and deliverance. Ultimately the membership shall win no matter who got how many votes. It is the outcome that is going to predict the future of IATO.
At the end good or bad both has to be accepted by the members as they have given the verdict of their choice during this election.
