The leadership of the New Zealand and Oceania chapters of The Global Organisation of Persons of Indian Origin (GOPIO) – touted as one of the leading organisations serving people originating from India – is in a state of suspended animation for at least a couple of months now.

GOPIO has been plagued by a spate of resignations of almost the entire executive committee including the chairman, president and secretary, leaving the organisation rudderless and creating confusion in the wider Indian community.

Indian Weekender canvassed a number of community members who were known to be associated with GOPIO for their responses but few were forthcoming in their replies to our questions, most of them speaking on condition of anonymity for a variety of reasons.

One senior functionary who resigned and did not want to be named said, “Personality politics within the organisation had become intolerable and ugly. You had to owe your allegiance either to one person or his rival. It became so frustrating, that it became a waste of time.”

There have been accusations of “cliques”, favouritism, high handedness and closed door machinations between rival groups. Readers might recall a report in Indian Weekender about GOPIO’s decision to charge a fee for the function in Auckland to honour visiting senior Indian minister Kapil Sibal earlier this year.

The community as well as community leaders had expressed grave disappointment at the organisation’s decision to charge, with the biggest Indian organisation, NZICA saying that it was never consulted – and had it been, it would have held a function free of cost.

Former chairman Harish Bajaj, who resigned as the chairman of the Oceania chapter – that comprised Australia, New Zealand and Fiji – did not wish to comment on record, despite several requests from Indian Weekender. He referred questions to the present interim committee headed by Satish Sharma. It is understood that close on the heels of Mr Bajaj’s resignation, the president Ashok Bhatia also left the organisation. Both cited personal reasons for their resignations.

Mr Sharma told Indian Weekender in the course of a phone conversation that the organisation had not been managed well for some time and that procedures were not followed.

One reason for this, he said, was because GOPIO never had a proper constitution. “It’s just a one and a half page piece of paper that says nothing,” Mr Sharma said. He added that the immediate task was to write up a new constitution and hold fresh elections, which he said he was working on and would be held within the next two months or so.

Asked what had gone wrong with the previous management, Mr Sharma said the organisation was not representative and was controlled and run by the whims and fancy of a few people.

Mr Sharma said he had always raised the flag on procedural matters before the previous committee but had faced opposition. “I was branded a trouble maker,” he said.

While adding that he was working toward holding fresh elections, he categorically stated that he had no interest in holding office and was helping out in the interim merely as a service to the community. It is understood that he has sent an email to GOPIO members stating that he would not contest the forthcoming elections – a fact that has been confirmed by recipients of the email message.

Co-Chair PR & Marketing of GOPIO Sunny Kaushal said Mr Sharma was handling the affairs of GOPIO at present and was planning a schedule for the elections. Mr Kaushal did not confirm whether he would himself contest the election but it is widely understood that he would.

He was also a contesting candidate in the recently aborted elections for the deputy chairperson of the India New Zealand Business Council. The election was aborted on account of the rather surprisingly late discovery by the members that an electronic ballot was not permissible under the existing constitution. The fact came to light after the electoral process got under way.

The GOPIO-promoted ETTANZ, a business promotion organisation that was launched with much fanfare this year, though still reported to be functioning, has had little to show by way of performance and has been termed as a non-starter by various members in the community. The ETTA website is also currently not functioning.

Mr Kaushal who is Vice President of ETTANZ said the organisation was functioning as usual, but did not say what its most recent activities were.

GOPIO courted further controversy when it hastily made some appointments around the time of the resignations by Mr. Bajaj and Mr. Bhatia. One of these appointments pertain to Daljit Singh who is the National Immigration Advisor to GOPIO. Mr Singh has been booked for alleged electoral fraud in the run up to the Auckland supercity elections and faces court. GOPIO and Mr Singh both strongly deny these allegations and Mr Singh has vowed to fight the allegations in court.

President of GOPIO’s Wellington Chapter Pushpa Wood expressed serious concern at these appointments and termed them as a high handed decision of the current group of people controlling GOPIO who had “vested interests” and were “power hungry”. She further clarified that the national executive was not consulted and the appointments were made by Satish Sharma in contravention of accepted practices.

She also attributed the current spate of resignations to the way the affairs are being managed. She had some strong words about the proposed redrafting of the constitution. She felt that the Wellington Chapter has a constitution accepted even by the Charities Commission and there is no need to reinvent the wheel as there is already a document that is working. “If any change has to be made – a mature and inclusive discussion needs to take place amongst all stake holders,” she said.

Indian Weekender has already received many comments from GOPIO members and other members of the community. If readers have anything to share with the larger community please email info@indianweekender.co.nz and we will come up with an even more in depth report on why people have been resigning from the local chapters of the organisation that has been termed as a premier organisation of overseas Indians.