Bishnupriya Manipuri org follow their own rules

Rebati Mohan Sinha

A meeting of the Central General Assembly of Nikhil Bishnupriya Manipuri Mahasabha held at Rabindra Bhavan, Patherkandi, Karimganj on 29th Jan 2012 to (i) discuss present situation and (ii) fix up date and venue of 44th General Conference. The meeting started at around 11AM. in a gathering of about 200. The numbers increased later.

The report said,

The incharge of the reception committee was at the mike to give the welcome speech; but he kept talking on some irrelevant topics. He was later persuaded to take his seat. Then the SG of NBMM came up to speak, and followed by another five/six speakers. During the period, proposals for extension of present committee (which was not in the agenda) also raised. At last, the President, NBMM declared that the present committee had been extended to one more year (could it be kept on Ventilator as some Sr. members had apprehension, quoting, Society Act 1860 doesn’t have any provision of one year extension?). There was no debate took place on extension of present Committee (six months or one year?). Even the reasons were not known to many of the people present there as they were seen murmuring. The speaker from Guwahati, Col. (Retd.) Bijoy Sinha wanted, the meeting to discuss the future strategy and why to dwell on only past; but hardly anyone paid heed to him. It appeared to be a pre-decided episode. There was not a single word spoken about the second agenda point i.e., fix up date and venue of 44th General Conference.

Before we review the entire episode, we must know the following :

a) The Central General Assembly is nothing but the Mahasabha’s Central Executive Body meeting with its two wings, the Sahitya Parishad and Sanskriti Parishad as per constitution/bye law.

b) Let us define the word ‘to discuss’(present situation) as mentioned in the agenda point : The extensive definition of ‘discuss’ means informal debates, arguments, taking into account of different ideas and to talk with others in an effort to reach agreement, to ascertain truth, or to convince. It involves close examination of the subject with interchange of opinions, especially to explore solutions ie. a strategic planning.

c) Strategic planning is an organization’s process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. In order to determine the direction of the organization, it is necessary to understand its current position and the possible avenues through which it can pursue a particular course of action. Actually strategic planning deals with at least one of the three key questions : i) what do we do? ii) for whom do we do ? iii) how do we excel?

In many organizations this is viewed as a process for determining where an organization is going over the years.

There are many approaches to strategic planning : i) situation- target-proposal, ii) see-think-draw, iii) draw-see-think-plan.

The most useful tool for the strategic planning is SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threat) analysis.

d) The Society Registration Act 1860 is an Act for the registration of literary, scientific and charitable societies and the Mahasabha is registered under this Act. However, once the society becomes registered and obtains its legal entity, the activities and the members become bound by the object of the memorandum. An unregistered society does not enjoy the legal status and therefore exists in fact and not under the law.

Member in the memorandum shall be a person who has been admitted according to the rules and regulations of the society and should have paid the subscription and sign the register of list of members. No person shall be entitled to vote or be counted as a member in any of the proceeding of the society whose subscription has been in arrears for a period exceeding three months.

Rights of the member includes to receive notices, right to vote, right to receive statement of accounts, right to attend general meetings. Notice for every meeting should be given to all the members according to the time limit as mentioned in the bye law and the time limit for issue of the notice for any meeting should be provided in the bye law. The notice for the meeting has to be given in writing. Generally a 21 days notice should be for a general meeting and 7 days notice for a governing body meeting.

Now the question is: Are the present Mahasabha office bearers following the above mentioned rules and regulations vis-a-vis maintaining membership registers at Anchalik, zonal and state level? sending notices and statements in writing to all members, especially New Delhi and Mumbai? Is auditing done every year?

It can be concluded that our organizations never believe in Society Act 1860. They follow their own rule.