In May 2002, I was on a family holiday in Switzerland when I received a call from the Shri Amiya Gooptu, the President of the Bengal Club. The matter was urgent, he said. The General Committee (i.e. the Board of Directors) had decided to invite me to be a member and I should sign and fax back a letter of consent. I considered it a great honour and privilege to be invited to serve on the Board of the oldest and most prestigious club in Calcutta, so did as I was instructed.
When I returned to Calcutta, I was in for a shock. I read in The Statesman that a virtual war had broken out between two rival groups in the Board of the Club. The rebel group was being exhorted a past President of the club Mr.C.R.Irani who was also the Editor of The Statesman. He wrote front page caveats in the newspaper. The group also filed law suits in the courts.
I had dear friends in both camps. The rebel group included my former colleague Bhaskar Banerjee, who was then working as the MD of Duncans, Sumit Mazumdar, the immediate past President of CII, Rajan Vaswani and Jayanta Mitra, now the Advocate General of the Government of West Bengal.
The other side led by the President were all my friends as well. I attended the first Board meeting and discovered t from the minutes that three names had been proposed and had been shot down by one group or the other. The fourth name was mine. Since there was no objection from either side I was inducted.
In my first meeting I made an open statement that I was not on the side of either group, I was on the side of the Club and we must find a way of resolving the disputes amicably without going to the media. I also appealed that we should avoid an election of the Board in the Annual General Meeting as it would be a break with the club’s fine traditions.
I failed miserably because the differences were as a consequence of big egos on both sides.There were no tangible issues on the table. Both the President and Mr. Irani wanted to teach each other a lesson.
Mr.Irani kept writing long caveats on the front page about the President Mr Gooptu and the latter began planning for an election in which he vowed to defeat the rebel group. It became crystal clear to me that there would be a messy campaign and election. The first thing I did was to ask Lovelock & Lewes(L&L) who were auditors of the Bengal Club to resign immediately. Although I was not a partner of the L&L it was no secret that it was part of the PwC stable globally. To say that L&L and PwC were different legal entities, would be skating on thin ice.
Mr.C.R.Irani took full advantage of the resignation and gleefully wrote that the Club accounts were in such shambles that even a reputed audit firm had resigned before the Annual General Meeting. He was quite upset with me when I clarified that L&L had resigned because I was a Board member now and a conflict of interest had developed. He told me in private that I should have alerted him to avoid embarrassment. I responded by saying L&L were auditors of The Statesman as well. He should keep PwC out of unwanted media publicity.
I was in a dilemma. Canvassing for votes is an anathema to me. After much soul-searching I told my colleagues that I will not contest the elections of the Bengal Club as by doing so I would risk the reputation of the firm and land myself in midst of warring friends and clients.
One of my colleagues must have called Polly Choksey (PKC to his partners) in Mumbai. PKC was the senior partner of PW when I joined the firm. He is the one who had sent me to Australia for training. We all held him in the highest regard. He retired in 1983, the year before I was admitted to partnership. PKC had served as the President of the club in 1975.
He invited me for lunch at the dining hall of The Bengal Club. That afternoon is etched indelibly in my memory. This was the gist of his advice: he had served the club as the President in 1975 and he had taken over from C R Iran who was President in 1974. PKC had a great love and affection for the club.
He reminded me that Kamesh Bhargava, his successor in PW was all set to take over as the President in mid-1989. But he suddenly passed away in April 1989. If I became the President, that would be a second time that a PW partner would have the honour of serving the Club.
I told him I was reluctant to contest an election. He said, “You have not put forward your name for the elections. The Board of Directors has nominated you unanimously. Are you going to let them down? He then quoted Edmund Burke to say that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” He reassured me, “I will speak to Cushrow Irani and tell him you are an independent person in whose integrity I have trust. You will make a fine future President.”
No hesitations were possible thereafter. I submitted my papers. Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court in a reported judgment titled The Bengal Club V. Susanta Kumar Chowdhary set the date of the election on July 22nd 2002. To ensure that the results of the election were conclusive, the judges ordered, “Since there are some disputes and allegations and counter allegations generating a sense of distrust among the members, we feel that for a fair conduct of the proceedings of AGM an impartial person of high esteem and repute should be there to supervise the holding of the AGM. So we are of the opinion that the AGM of the Club may be held in accordance with the articles of association of the Club but under the direct supervision of the Honble Justice Chittatosh Mookerjee, a former Chief Justice of this Court and also of Bombay High Court.”
Several of the candidates withdrew from the electoral process notably Sumit Mazumdar, the immediate Past President of CII, Rajan Vaswani and others. The AGM was held in a charged atmosphere with speeches and allegations traded on both sides. The elections were not by show of hands, a poll was demanded. Since both sides had voted for me, I was elected as one of the youngest members with the highest votes. The lone member of the “rebel” group Jayanta Mitra, who had not withdrawn, lost the elections.
Because several sitting Board members had withdrawn from the electoral process, I leapfrogged in seniority and became the President of the club in 2007, in just five years (normally it takes 10 to 12 years). Thankfully, collegiality returned and differences were resolved in a friendly manner behind closed doors. The year I laid down my office as President two remarkable events happened: 1. the AGM was wrapped up in record time, perhaps the vote of thanks took longer than the rest of the meeting and 2. we elected the youngest member ever: Jishnu Ray. He is the current President of the club, the youngest the club has ever had. The Club has never seen a contested election since.