The Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) has passed a series of resolutions at its Extraordinary General Meeting held on Saturday, each laden with ambitions of relocation, continued occupation, financial concessions, and administrative authorisations. On paper, it looks like a club attempting to take charge of its destiny. But scratch beneath the surface, and the exercise begins to resemble a grand illusion of authority, one that the Government of Karnataka is unlikely to entertain.

For decades, BTC has functioned under the belief that its heritage, influence, and contribution to the city’s social life give it a certain bargaining power. That belief may have felt true in a different era. But in 2025, with no lease on the land it occupies, no legal claim over the 60+ acres on Race Course Road, and a complete dependency on the government for its license, utilities, and operational permissions, the club is trying to negotiate from a position that barely exists. It is, to put it gently, a body sitting on a stool with no legs, convinced it is seated on a throne.

The resolutions passed by the club reinforce this miscalculation. BTC seeks permission to continue racing at the present site until an alternative location is ready. It wants concessions on rent. It wants stamp duty waivers. It wants financial support during the transition. It wants the government to honour terms, timelines, and administrative conveniences that only an equal party in a negotiation could demand. But BTC is not an equal party and the government knows this better than anyone else.

At present, the club occupies government land without a valid lease. Its operations continue at the pleasure of the state, subject to annual licensing and political goodwill. The explanatory statements annexed to the EGM notice themselves acknowledge that the government has repeatedly communicated its intention to relocate the racecourse. The club has no enforceable contractual right to insist otherwise. Yet the resolutions, in their tone and content, are structured as though BTC has bargaining leverage it demonstrably lacks.

Governments do not respond kindly to wish lists. They respond even less kindly to entities that overestimate their negotiating position. BTC’s resolutions read like demands framed as requests, an approach that almost guarantees they will be “taken on record” and quietly disregarded. The government’s stance on relocation is firm, consistent, and legally defensible. BTC’s stance is hopeful, verbose, and anchored more in sentiment than in statute.

The club’s leadership may genuinely believe they are safeguarding members’ interests by passing elaborate resolutions filled with clauses, authorisations, and conditional permissions. In reality, they have merely formalised the disconnect between their aspirations and their circumstances. The government is under no obligation to grant even a fraction of what has been sought. And unless BTC recognises that it is negotiating from the ground, not the saddle, it risks being brushed aside in the bureaucratic breeze.

If the intention of the EGM was to strengthen BTC’s position, the outcome has been quite the opposite. The resolutions expose a club still operating with an outdated sense of self-importance, unaware that its authority rests on borrowed ground, literally and figuratively. Unless BTC adopts a pragmatic, humble, cooperative strategy acknowledging the government’s dominion, its resolutions will continue to be little more than paper exercises, destined to gather dust in a Secretariat file.

One has to wait and see whether the government takes kindly to these resolutions, which read less like polite requests and more like outright demands. The timing could not be worse. The government is navigating its own internal crisis, with the Chief Minister under pressure from a deputy eyeing his chair. Known for his rigidity, he is unlikely to be amused or indulgent when confronted with BTC’s assertive wish-list.

In the end, the uncomfortable truth remains: no resolution can stand firm when the institution that passed it has no legs to stand on.