FCC of South Asia’s website restored with original office-bearers names on it

FCC of South Asia’s website restored with original office-bearers names on it

FCC of South Asia’s website restored with original office-bearers names on it

“Ex-Treasurer Pankaj Yadav once again emerges as saviour of the Club”

Delhi Crown Bureau

New Delhi: The unprecedented crisis at “The Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) of South Asia”, situated in the heart New Delhi, finally ended on Friday (Oct. 11), with the Club’s official website restoring the names of original office-bearers duly elected in March 2023 for a two-year term.

A fresh information put up by President Venkat at the Club’s Notice Boards read – “Our website was hacked on Oct 4 by some miscreants. It has now been restored. We regret the inconvenience this may have caused to you.”

An old member (veteran journalist) of the Club gave the following inside story to www.thedelhicrown.com

“In a coup carried out inside the Club on October 4, some members of the Governing Committee (2023-25) led by Simran Sodhi and Sanjay Kumar had passed a No-Confidence Motion against President Venkat, Vice-President Dr. Awwad and General Secretary Nanda. Immediately thereafter the guy handling Information Technology (IT) works for the Club was coerced to carry out “changes” on the official website, declaring Simran Sodhi (pic below) as the interim-president and Sanjay Kumar (pic below) as the interim general-secretary.

Subsequently, in a bid to usurp the Club and grab it in haste, Simran and Sanjay ordered the managerial staff to come surreptitiously to the Club on Sunday (Oct 6) saying “they needed some Letter Heads, Stamps and some other key documents from the office”, and an illicit operation was secretly carried out at the Club on a holiday at the behest of the duo (i.e. Simran and Sanjay).

The Club’s members and office-bearers were taken aback by the abrupt and fast-moving developments, even as The FCC of South Asia plunged into an unprecedented deep crisis.

Watching the dirty developments from a distance, the Club’s former Treasurer Pankaj Yadav jumped into the well keeping both the warring factions away, and taking a firm stand in the interest of the Club. On Monday (October 7), Yadav took charge of the Club telling both the groups to first resolve their differences and then run the Club.

Simultaneously, another crisis was moving in-tandem. The IT guy, who was introduced by former president Munish Gupta, refused to listen to the office-bearers led by Venkat, and chose to play in the hands of Siman & Company. He refused to strike down the names of Simran and Sanjay as interim-president and interim general-secretary, respectively.

Innumerable attempts were made by the office-bearers and the staff to reach out to the IT guy, but he went into hiding, thus becoming inaccessible. The IT guy’s drama went on Monday & and Tuesday. Surprisingly, none at the Club had the IT guy’s residential address or location of his house.

Taking the aid of his “government contacts”, the former Treasurer dug out the IT guy’s residential address in Najafgarh (South-West Delhi) with the help of his mobile phone number. And, accompanied by one of the managers, Yadav knocked at the IT guy’s house on Wednesday morning, thus taking him by surprise. The IT guy still didn’t yield, and finally police was called. But the IT guy refused to budge and continued to play his tricks, trying his best in not sharing the details of IT-instruments, viz. Official Website, Emailing System, Text-Messaging System, etc., being used by him in running the Club’s daily affairs.

The impasse continued till Friday morning when the IT guy finally yielded and restored the original office-bearers’ names on the Club’s official website.

Show-Cause Notices have been sent by the Club’s management to Simran and Sanjay, and their respective replies are awaited. Move is also on to “investigate the active role” of former president Munish Gupta in the whole drama that continued at the Club for a week. A few other names are on the radar too.

Though the official website has been restored with the original office-bearers’ names on it, the IT details are yet to reach the Club’s management even as the IT guy continues playing hide-and-seek.

This was the second occasion when senior journalist Pankaj Yadav, who has worked with many foreign media organisations, emerged as Saviour of the Club. He had carried out a similar “cleansing work” in 2014-15, when he caught the then female manager red-handed while stealing the Club’s money from its bank-account. The then female manager was subsequently sacked. Incidentally, Venkat was the Club’s president even then.”

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