The new executive team led by Suraj Vaidya had assumed office just two months ago. It had called the special general meeting in Chitwan for June 13 and 14. [break]
However, majority of office bearers, including Vice Presidents Bhawani Rana and Pradeep Jung Pandey, did not attend it, expressing differences with the leadership.
“Members are unhappy because the new President did not fulfill his words like proportional representation of district, municipal and zonal leaders in different committees,” said an office-bearer, requesting anonymity.
He said members were also dissatisfied with the way the new leadership was driving the business body. Some of the members charged Vaidya and his aide of not being inclusive and running the office as they liked, while others blamed him of not consulting with the members.
“The new leadership is neither holding prior-discussions on issues (of our interest) while meeting ministers and top government officials, nor briefing us about the outcomes of such meetings,” said a businessman.
He even told Republica that the new leadership did not even made courtesy calls and briefed the agendas of special general meeting to the former presidents.
As a result, most of the former presidents, including Kush Kumar Joshi, Ravi Bhakta Shrestha, Binod Bahadur Shrestha and Mahesh Lal Pradhan, boycotted the meeting.
Vice President Rana said she could not attend the meeting as her son was taken ill, while Pandey said he was not in a good health to attend the meeting.
Responding to the boycott, past president Joshi said the incident was internal affair of the FNCCI and would be resolved internally.
Others, however, tagged it as an outcome of deepening split in the business community.
“The FNCCI had split vertically during the elections. Apparently, the new leadership has done nothing to heal the wound and bring all together,” said a former office-bearer of NFCCI.
Despite repeated efforts, Republica could not contact Vaidya for comments.
According to FNCCI staffers, Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal will formally inaugurate the meeting on Tuesday.
The FNCCI had called the special meeting to discuss on key issues facing the business sector and discuss and endorse its financial statements among others. The meeting was considered important because it decides on future course of actions and delegates authority to the new leadership for taking different actions over the next one year.
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