Indian School EC may face no-trust motion on Friday
The Executive Committee of Indian School Bahrain (ISB), headed by School Chairman Prince S Natarajan, may face a no-confidence motion at the annual general body meeting (AGM) of the school, which will be held on Friday (December 4), on the Isa Town Campus, nearly a year after the present committee was elected to power at a hotly- contested election in December last year.
The no-confidence motion is put forward by two parents, Dr A Kamarudhin, who was the School Chairman in 1999- 2002, and Jose Edward.
If a two-third majority of the parents vote in favour of the motion at the AGM, then the motion is passed and the current EC is bound to vacate the office.
Dr Kamarudhin told DT News that if the EC decided not to take up the no-confidence motion for discussion and deliberation at the AGM, it will be equivalent to insulting the parents and disrespecting the constitution. They will have to pay a big price for that, he said.
Although he was a supporter of the present EC when it faced elections under the Progressive Parents Alliance (PPA), the no-confidence motion was necessitated as the academic quality of the school has degenerated and that there was no transparency in the working of the present committee. If the no-confidence motion is passed, the general body can take the decision as to who should shoulder the responsibilities of the new committee.
At the same time, Prince S Natarajan said he would have a discussion today (Monday) with Dr Kamarudhin regarding the no-confidence motion, which he said was totally unacceptable against the democratically-elected body of the Indian school which made a clean sweep of the elections last year.
He said that there’s no possibility of taking the no-confidence motion for discussion at the AGM.
If there’s a no-confidence motion coming for discussion, then it should be informed to the parents who are the stakeholders of the school, five days ahead of the AGM. As such, today will be a crucial day of political manoeuvring in the Indian School politics.
Meanwhile, United Parents Panel (UPP) Chairman Ajaya Krishnan told DT News that the UPP would not cooperate with the no-confidence motion put forward by an individual parent. The UPP has no connection with the no-confidence motion, he said. At the same time, the UPP, in which previous School Chairman Abraham John is a member, will take decisions as and when the occasion demands it. The UPP is totally against increasing school fees, Ajaya Krishan said.
The school authorities have denied increments to teachers and that many teachers are ‘tortured’ in the school, he alleged.
Meanwhile, the Indian School is running an operating deficit of BD30,000 per month and the accumulated debt of the school has reached BD1.3 million, Prince S Natarajan said at a press conference. The weak financial status of the school would be discussed at the AGM, he clarified.
Addressing the media on Saturday, Natarajan said that the school had an outstanding debt of BD300,000 when the earlier executive committee handed them over the management. All efforts had been put to improve the financial condition of the institution. But the school needed a sustainable solution, as it couldn’t go ahead with the mounting deficits, he said.
Ajaya Krishnan and Prince S Natarajan
Dr A Kamarudhin
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