GBC Elections in Bangalore - An Announcement

By: Nimai Pandit Das
It is with great pleasure we announce that gigantic steps have been taken recently in ISKCON Bangalore and other temples in India in the matter of implementing Srila Prabhupada's Direction of Management for electing members of the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON from among the Temple Presidents.
Various instructions of Srila Prabhupada on this matter, both for conducting the elections or for apparently letting the GBC members stay for good, without elections, were discussed threadbare in an istagoshti format for close to a week. Finally it was unanimously decided to hold elections from among the TP body for electing the GBC members.
You can below watch the videos of Sri Madhu Pandit Das and Sri Cancalapati Das explaining the decision made in the meetings.
http://iskcontoday.org/node/76
http://iskcontoday.org/cpp
http://iskcontoday.org/IskconBangaloreacceptsdom
1st Step- TP Body elections for 1st time
As the first step, it was decided by the Bangalore devotees to, for the first time, hold an election from among the full time devotees from all the many temples/centers in India, with minimum three years in the movement, to elect the TP body. This step was taken after extensive discussions among the various leaders as the growth of the almost 20 temples/centers was inorganic and also so as to give chance to formally confirm/reject the potential members of the TP Body by the General Members of the Temples as the members did not have a say in the appointment of the leaders earlier. Total of 138 devotees voted for electing 21 members of the TP body. Secret voting ensured that the voting was uninfluenced. The devotees appeared quite satisfied by the process and the results.

You can below watch a video of Cancalapati Das, the VP of ISKCON Bangalore explaining this process.

http://iskcontoday.org/node/80

2nd Step - GBC elections for India Zone
Subsequently, these 21 members of the TP body voted from among themselves as per the DOM, to elect GBC members from India Zone on Nov 18th 2008. The list of these new GBCs from India Zone has been posted at the temple notice board and will be posted soon at www.iskcontoday.org At the next GBC elections after three years, the 1st step will not be repeated. Only the 2nd step will need to be performed as the DOM instructs.

Both the elections were conducted by election commissioners appointed by ISKCON, Inc. in conjunction with ISKCON Bangalore affiliates and were monitored by Independent observers. The whole process was extensively documented, photographed and video recorded.

The many videos made throughout the discussions and the elections will be posted regularly on www.iskcontoday.org

GBC elections in other geographical regions
After the elections in India, ISKCON, Inc. will conduct elections in other regions in the world to elect GBC members from those regions. All these members from different regions will together constitute the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON. We expect that in each region, the leaders in that region will come together in an istagosthi format, with three members of the Trustee board of ISKCON, Inc appointed as an Election Commission Committee, to discuss and decide on the election policy for their region. The election policy will include the qualification of the temples that can be part of ISKCON, the qualification of their Tps-the ballot, how many GBCs to elect from that region, how many zones in the region, when will the elections be held, where, regional election commissioners, Independent observers, etc.

GBC of ISKCON, Inc. (or ISKCON)
As you all may know, Srila Prabhupada wrote the Direction of Management on the letterhead of his International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Inc. (or ISKCON, Inc.), that he had personally established in NY in 1966. In it he listed the various temples in the world that were part of his society, the ISKCON, Inc., as of July 28, 1970. Thus the Governing Body Commission created by Srila Prabhupada to supervise the temples was formally the GBC of ISKCON, Inc, but known commonly as GBC of ISKCON or ISKCON GBC. Following that precedent, ISKCON, Inc. is conducting the election for the members of GBC of ISKCON.

Srila Prabhupada's GBC an Unincorporated Association
As you also may be aware, the Governing Body Commission appointed by Srila Prabhupada through the DOM was to be an unincorporated association and it functioned for many years likewise under Srila Prabhupada's personal direction. But later, this Uninc. association, the GBC, was abandoned by its then members. After Srila Prabhupada's Disappearance, elections according to the DOM, its founding charter, from among the Tps should have been conducted, but were not. Moreover, there have been no formal meetings held of this association for how many decades we do not know, a necessity for its continued existence.

ISKCON GBC Society of West Bengal, India, a new entity
A few old members of GBC with some other persons, in 1993, formed an ISKCON GBC Society, registering it as a Society, a legal entity in West Bengal in India. This body has no legal or formal relationship to the GBC of Srila Prabhupada formed as per the DOM in 1970. It has no connection to Srila Prabhupada as he did not instruct his GBC to be incorporated. He formed the GBC via DOM, its constitution, and gave them specific roles, powers, organizational structure etc. They did not follow that for this new Society. Instead, some of them created this new organization, calling itself a name similar to the GBC of ISKCON, but not following the instructions of Srila Prabhupada pertaining to the GBC of ISKCON. Moreover, in its incorporation papers, the new West Bengal Society does not mention any relationship to Srila Prabhupada's GBC or to the DOM, a legal requirement to show any formal connection.

Since then they have been trying to lay claim to be the GBC of ISKCON, the "ecclesiastical authority" of ISKCON temples with power to remove directors not in line with them. Believing this misrepresentation, the TPs of temples agree to follow their direction, even if unwillingly, not knowing who else are the GBCs. They do not know that Srila Prabhupada has given them the power to elect the members of the GBC, from among themselves as per the DOM.

Current GBC elections for Srila Prabhupada's GBC
Temples are coming forward to take part in this historic election process. The elections in Bangalore were only the first stages. Please send any queries to secretary@iskcontoday.org. If you wish to keep your communication confidential yuo can personally write to me at nimaipandit@iskconinc.com

We will keep you informed of the new updates on www.iskcontoday.org.

If you have any queries/articles you can direct them to secretary@iskcontoday.org

your servant,
Nimai Pandit Das,
President, ISKCON, Inc. NY