General Election for Badagas

Read in the news papers about the announcement of General Body Meeting on 21-07-2013 of the Young Badaga Association and elect NEW office bearers. This General Body Meeting is being held after many years, in fact many decades, instead of being an annual affair.
Hope this Young Badaga Association will elect really new apolitical, young and dynamic Badagas instead of the same old elders who claim to be 'forever young'.
By the way, why can't we have a great and grand meeting of all Badagas, spread all over the world, on the same day to elect a NAKKU BETTA GOWDA [leader] in a truly 100% democratic way like in a general election?
Is it not high time?

Deepak from Nanjanadu asks :
At my age I am not very well aware of the BADAGA GENERAL BODY or the politics.After the scrutiny of our website I am in a doubt whether such a mass election is possible.If so then who will undertake such an enormous election.Well if happened, I will be very glad for such happening.

Hello Deepak, good questions. There are two issues involved here.
One is about YBA - Young Badagas Association that was formed some 50 odd years back with a few hundred members and now, as per THE HINDU, there are about 3800 members. It was started with some very good intentions aimed at improving and enlarging awareness of ALL Badagas and for better interaction with other communities. YBA successfully obtained land at a prime place at Ooty, next to Breeks School, Charring Cross and built a hall with a a few shops. This hall is being rented out for marriages and other functions.

As is the case with most of our affairs, politics crept into running the association; many factions emerged and there were/are serious allegations of financial irregularities. Annual General Body Meetings [AGM] were not held and it became a 'personal fiefdom' of some persons with affiliation to a particular political party. Over a period of time, it resulted in many factional fights and took some ugly turns and police had to intervene. The recent one being as late as 24-5-2013. Truly shameful.

The million dollar question is - who is the governing body of YBA now? In the absence of AGMs, can some people elected decades ago, claim to be the true representatives of Badagas in general and

YBA in particular and hold on to the chairs for ever?
In that respect, I welcome the announcement of the much delayed meeting to be held in July. Only hope is that, this meeting will be held in cordial atmosphere and elections held in a democratic way.
Again the doubt is, whether there is a proper record of the members? If so, YBA should come out with a list in the open - news papers or online in a website.

Since, YBA does not seem to have a website of its own, I can publish the list of members in my websites like www.badaga.co, www.badaga.in etc. if it is sent.

Lastly, what is the criteria for becoming a member of YBA and its rules and regulations?

The second issue involves in conducting a sort of General Election for choosing a Nakku Betta Leader - will write about that in detail soon.