Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The Judgment Day: ISKCON Mumbai v/s ISKCON Bangalore

Long awaiting story of Sriman Madhu pandit das and the GBC fight is going end soon as the Judgment day approaches very near. Both ISKCON Bangalore and ISKCON Worldwide are waiting for a breakout but do you really know why they are fighting? Is it a fight for right or fight for justice or fight for property? In simple words, is it a fight for Lakshmi or Narayana?
Madhu Pandit Dasa
I was constantly in touch with ISKCON Bangalore’s Public Relation head Sri Bharathasrabha Dasa and was in touch with some of the GBC member including a one formal meet with Sri Varada Krishna Dasa and ISKCON Tirupati President Sri Revathi Raman Das, to know more about the current case which has reached the Supreme Court. There are few things which I want to discuss with the devotees and give you some minute details about the case as well as the history of the case.
First let me tell you frankly that this is not just a war on property but it’s a war against Prabhupada. ISKCON Bangalore follows all the methods properly but has failed to address few things to a common man which has made ISKCON Bangalore look guilty. However on the other side, ISKCON GBC has made lots and lots of mistakes which are visible but people fail to see it. Let me put this straight, ISKCON Bangalore was attacked time and again but none of their actions were public and ISKCON GBC guru issue was neither published nor preached until recently after all this fights.

ISKCON Bangalore’s unknown History

If you remember ISKCON Bangalore’s first news was an attack on the whole temple charging them as rapist and kidney stealers. The news also said that ISKCON Bangalore brainwashes people and also about dead bodies found near Temple. This news made the whole Bangalore think that ISKCON Bangalore was not a genuine temple and frankly even I started to think the same at that time before I came in touch with ISKCON’s culture. My best Guess in this matter is that ISKCON Mumbai started to spread such kind of non-sense using a famous local tabloid “Hai Bengalore” however I’m not sure because it’s a very old story but calculating the time of Jai Pataka Swami being kicked out of the temple, it surely gives an idea of alleged involvement.
Dayaram das going inside Court Room
The great start what ISKCON got was the Akshaya Patra program which latterly changed the idea of mid day meal program in India. It rocked the whole nation as the debate crossed Bangalore borders hitting the Members of parliament to show interests in this program. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Robert Vadra and many others started to welcome this amazing project. On the contrary, then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam visited ISKCON’s mid day meal program and gave an excellent review about the food and the quality of services. Slowly ISKCON Bangalore started to hit the world media and Akshaya Patra achieved and went ahead of ISKCON’s GBC “food for life” program. The next greatest step was in 2006, when Karnataka’s God Actor “Dr. Raj Kumar” died. “Shiva Rajkumar (Dr. Raj Kumar’s son) performed the last rites guided by priests from the ISKCON Temple” quoted in a local newspaper. Many people don’t know the fact but yes, it was a turning point as many of the Kannada talking people believed that Raj Kumar was a follower of ISKCON which was not public until then.
ISKCON Bangalore was seen on a global scale as so many celebrities, delegates and politicians started to visit the Akshaya Patra program. The international Televisions like BBC, CNBC, CNN and others covered a documentary on Akshaya Patra program. ISKCON Bangalore’s culture also started to attract many people and influenced more than 10 thousand youths to attend the program called FOLK and even to this day FOLK Program has been a success. The time came when the civil court of Bangalore upheld the ISKCON Bangalore property issue. Jai Pataka Swami was the main person behind the first ever property case of ISKCON Bangalore. However Bangalore won the case easily because the documents provided by ISKCON Bangalore were standard. I have seen the whole set of arguments and the original documents and I’m sure that ISKCON Bangalore has an upper hand, but ISKCON Bangalore’s case did not go on record as many of the news channels never got proper news. However on the other side GBC filed a petition in Karnataka High Court challenging the civil court verdict. They also filed Criminal contempt against Madhu Pandit Dasa on the charges of corruption and forgery. Madhu Pandit Dasa won this case both in high court and Supreme Court however ISKCON Bangalore’s property case was won by Mumbai putting charges of missing documents and forgery. This is when ISKCON Bangalore was shown as a duplicate iskcon and the results were devastating. ISKCON Bangalore’s president was shown as a big thief and ISKCON GBC created lot of news which kept on attacking ISKCON Bangalore’s standards. You know the story from there as it’s been public so widely and even Wikipedia covers the news.
Till that time, ISKCON Bangalore was silent because Bangalore wanted to keep it indoor but when Mumbai went on public then only the Bangalore started to preach about ISKCON Guru Issues. I believe ISKCON Bangalore was late to respond and as result ISKCON Bangalore is seen as a corrupt society. ISKCON Bangalore reacted late which made Mumbai take a step forward of attacking Madhu Pandit Dasa so openly that local media covered it and repeated the story again and again. The debate was directly relayed on the local news channels such as TV9 Kannada, News9, Suvarna News 24x7, Janashri and many more. Even ISKCON Mumbai created a scene in front of ISKCON Bangalore.
However in a very recent times, ISKCON Bangalore helped media to cover a story on the ISKCON guru issue to the local news English channel who covered most of the information. ISKCON Bangalore should have done this very early but it’s never too late as the verdict is on the way.

ISKCON Bangalore Pros and cons

Keeping in mind the upper hand of ISKCON Bangalore I’m going to give some Perdition about what can happen.

Minus Points against ISKCON Bangalore - 

1. BBMP Records missing- Some of the records of registration of the land has not been found or stolen
2. Forgery- The ISKCON Mumbai records says that Madhu Pandit Das has signed and got government sealed on some of the documents off record
3. ISKCON- ISKCON Society is one and it should follow rules set by GBC according to the will of Prabhupada.

Plus Points against ISKCON Bangalore -

1. Documents- ISKCON Bangalore has maintained a good set of documents to win the case.
2. Sub Registration- ISKCON Bangalore land was registered before MPD became the president.
3. Off records- Records of tax and accounts have been perfectly rectified.
4. The Akshaya Patra Program- NGO run by ISKCON is registered separately but it can make Supreme Court think once again about the issue as the main kitchen of Akshaya Patra is located on the same land.

ISKCON TRUTH Perditions-

Judgment 1: ISKCON Bangalore is an independent body and ISKCON Mumbai should not interfere in any matters with them
Judgment 2: ISKCON Mumbai is the owner of ISKCON Bangalore
Judgment 3: ISKCON Mumbai is the owner of ISKCON Bangalore. Statuesque should be maintained but ISKCON Bangalore should follow the rules set but the GBC of Mumbai
Judgment 4: ISKCON Mumbai is the owner of ISKCON Bangalore. But Akshaya Patra should run as it is as well as Madhu Pandit Das should remain the president for the following period of time.
Judgment 5: ISKCON Bangalore is an independent body however it should follow the rules set by GBC as they come under the ISKCON Society Branch
So let’s hope for the best and let’s hope truth wins.
Hare Krishna

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