NEW YORK (TIP): The current executive committee of New York Tamil Sangam headed by Prakash M Swamy has been dissolved with immediate effect, according to a communique from the Sangam. The announcement said as per the bylaws of the Sangam and in conformity with New York State Charities and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Code fresh and transparent elections will be held and a new team will be elected at the general body meeting of all the paid members to be held soon in New York City.

It said financial statements for three years will be submitted to the all the members at that meeting. This was never practiced in the past despite earnest appeals by some of us. The financials were never shared with the members either by post or by email attachments which is a violation of IRS rules. New York Tamil Sangam is a 501 © 3 non-profit organization formed to promote Tamil language and literature and will henceforth follow all rules and regulations of IRS and NY State Charities Board to prevent any misuse of power and to improve public accountability and transparency.

In the 40 years, it had never held any general body meeting and this may even put the NYTS non-profit status in jeopardy. Also, the office bearers are selected internally by old bandicoots and not elected in open by the subscription paying members denying them their due rights. I want to bring in reforms and transparency before I step down, though I have one more year to go as President,” he said in a message sent to all members.

“I was elected for a three-year period in Jan 2010 and my term ends in December 2013. I decided to step down a year ahead as I was feeling uncomfortable working with photo and publicity crazy, opportunistic, self serving, manipulative and stage and power-hungry individuals who wanted to use NYTS for their benefit and who took every opportunity to violate the IRS laws. During the last 12 years I had served as Vice President (Public Relations); Secretary and then President, I worked hard to improve the image of NY Tamil Sangam both in the media and on the ground.

I served as joint treasurer of Fetna 2006 wherein I brought Supreme Star Sarath Kumar and Radhika without paying them any fee to attend the event using my personal contacts. I brought in NYC Comptroller John Liu, Indian Consul General Prabhu Dayal and scores of VVIPs from India to attend our events.

I had invited free or at no cost a motley group of individuals from various fields – Music Director Bharadwaj, Aishwarya Rajnikanth, Mani Shankar Iyer, MP, Jinnah MP, Tiruchi Siva MP, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Kalyana Malai Mohan, Ku Gnanasampandan, Y G Mahendran, Supreme Court Justice Karpaga Vinayakam, writer Gnani to name a few and all these were unheard in the past. For the past six years, I ensured that the corpus funds in the bank were not touched and we raised enough funds and sponsorship to do the programs and introduced new concepts such as picnics and bus trips.

I changed the face and image of the Sangam which was not liked by old bandicoots who were using the Sangam for their personal benefits and illegal activities in the past,” the outgoing president said in the communique. Elections will be held for the following positions: President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. Please wait for the announcement. Nominations are welcome. An election officer will be announced to receive nominations and to conduct elections for NYTS.