The Bangalore Turf Club has caught itself in a bind by its reluctance to take a conciliatory approach about broad basing of its membership despite the expressed wish of none other than the Chief Minister of the State.

The government`s move is well intended. There is an urgent need to draw people from various walks of life to ensure that the sport gets an impetus. The inbreeding in the form of members mostly being the progeny of the existing members has surely not helped. The growth of the sport is rather stunted because of the ill-effects of inbreeding. The last time the strength of the membership was increased by 100 was nearly 40 years ago in 1978. That was the only expansion which did not see any of the relatives of the existing members and business associates getting in as per the directive of the government which had imposed 22 restrictive conditions. Since there is no move forthcoming from the club to increase the membership, the government is justified in issuing a directive. The club doesn`t have anything to show for its long existence barring the government given license to run racing. The club does not own the land and hasn`t built reserves.

The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators goes the saying. Unfortunately, BTC is not navigated by people who have far sight but by those with myopic vision. The members are refusing to act responsibly and are putting on stake the livelihood of 1000s of employees depending on racing. Most members are not investors in the sport but enjoy the perks of being members paying less than a rupee per day on their membership which is unheard of in any club in India. Such members cannot be expected to act with reason. It is already 15 days since the betting activities stopped because of the refusal of the club to vote for an increase of membership and they don`t seem to be concerned. It is a time the stakeholders come forward and made themselves heard. The need of the hour is to have inclusive delegation to represent the interests of the sport and not to allow a few, unreasonable people to decide the fate of the sport.

A large delegation consisting of members of the Managing Committee including former chairman and representatives of all sections of the racing industry should jointly meet the Chief Minister and seek license after interacting with him as there is a total disconnect between the government and the stake holders of racing. The Managing Committee and the members of the club should raise above the club politics and unite the entire fraternity and jointly give a commitment if need be to secure the license from the government. No price is too huge to pay for restoring the livelihood of daily wagers and the equilibrium of the sport. The Chairman needs all support regardless of the factional politics in the club which is indeed the genesis of the problem. The stakeholders and club members may well realize that we can flourish if we act with unison. To quote Winston Churchill: We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Government nominee Srikanth put it aptly when he said that the need of the hour was for an inclusive delegation because BTC alone cannot solve the same. ``We have been making concerted efforts to get across to the Chief Minister to relent. I am a punter first and hence my interest is that the sport should not be affected by the politics of the club. The problem with BTC is that there is a tendency to sweep the problems under the carpet. There is no long-term perspective. The effort has always been to look for an ad hoc solution. Even now the club mandarins want to get the license somehow to restore racing without taking concrete measures to ensure there is no repetition of the problem. Broad-basing of membership is an absolute necessity because there is a need for wider representation for greater participation for the promotion of the sport. Otherwise, the growth of the sport will be stunted. BTC is facing problems on various fronts with claims of tax dues by a litany of government agencies. There is a need for achieving a consensus in solving the problem on a long-term basis.``

Harinder Shetty who is at the helm following the resignation of all the elected members of the managing committee on the eve of the Special General Body Meeting called to vote for increased membership, said that he has been making concerted efforts to convince the Chief Minister to restore the license to the club as early as possible despite lot of negativity about the club.

Whether the club succeeds in getting the license without any preconditions remains to be seen. Unfortunately, the members of the club believe that they can have a confrontation with the government by refusing to bow to its dictates and yet hope to carry on. There is no recognition of the fact that they are jeopardizing the sport itself by their recalcitrant stand.

The turf club members lost a golden opportunity by not discussing the issue of increase of membership at the recently called Special General Body Meeting by taking recourse to technicalities. The motion could have been discussed and if found favor, the same could have been conveyed to the government for approval as done in other cases by Mysore Race Club which also has the same Articles of Association. It is clear that the members were in no mood to even discuss the issue of membership and hence the question of giving in to the government doesn`t appear to be a possibility.

As far as racing enthusiasts are concerned, they can only hope for a miracle because praying for a change of heart on the part of the members of the club is next to an impossibility. Only in the event of a threat on the part of the government to hand over the license to some other body which will have inclusive representation like it did in 1978 to force increase of membership can perhaps bring about a resolution to the stalemate.

There is a need for statesmanship that is both prudent and has a probing concern for the future.