Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Indian Renaissance Institute (IRI) Meeting held on 16th -17th November 2019 at Pune

The following members/invitee members attended the BoT Meeting:

  1. Dr. Ramesh Awasthi
  2. N.D. Pancholi
  3. Kiran Nanavati
  4. S.C. Jain
  5. S.C. Varma
  6. Mahi Pal Singh
  7. Mohd. Nazimuddin
  8. G. Veeranna
  9. Apurba Dasgupta
  10. Sheo Raj Singh
  11. Bhaskar Sur
  12. Rajender K. Sharma
  13. Sangeeta Mall
  14. Debabrata Pal
  15. K. Srinivasa Chary

Dr. Ramesh Awasthi presided over the meeting.

  1. First of all the members stood in silence to pay their tributes to Sh. Narottam Vyas, a life trustee of the IRI, who died on 4th July 2019 and Prof. Suman Oak, a staunch rationbalist and radical humanist who died on 25th October 2019, after the last BoT meeting on 6th April 2019.
  2. Then the minutes of the BoT meeting held on 6th April 2019 at GPF, New Delhi were

presented, discussed and approved.

         3. Regarding 13, Mohini Road, Dehra Dun the opinion of the Trustees was that no

decision can be taken unless the judgment comes from the Uttarakhand High Court. It was decided to wait for the judgment and take a decision at an appropriate time after that.

          4.The proposal of Ms. Anjali Chakraborty to hold a seminar on ‘Presidential

Democracy is a need of the hour?’ was not accepted as it was felt that more pressing issues face the country which needs more and immediate attention.

  1. The Editorial Board of The Radical Humanist was reconstituted. Now the members of the Editorial Board are: Dr. Ramesh Awasthi, N.D. Pancholi, Dipavali Sen and Sangeeta Mall.
  2. Dr. R.M. Pal’s long-standing proposal to declare Prof. Sibnarayan Ray’s biography of M.N. Roy as the official biography by the IRI was not accepted.
  3. It was decided to hold the next BoT Meeting at Inkollu, near Chirala in Andhra Pradesh on 9th and 10th February. (The decision to hold the next meeting was, however, postponed by the BoT Members through a unanimous resolution.)
  4. It was decided to revive the IRHA through activities and to hold the first such meeting/seminar at Delhi by IRHA, Delhi. It was also decided that study camps in collaboration with various rationalist organizations, NGOs, human rights groups etc. should be organized.
  5. Ms. Sangeeta Mall volunteered and was entrusted with the task of finding out ways and means to make available to the IRHA the funds lying in the account of IRHA at Mumbai to improve its functioning.
  6. Mahi Pal Singh was made a life trustee to fill in the vacancy created by the demise of Sh. Narottam Vyas. The vacancy of an elected trustee created by the elevation of Mahi Pal Singh as life trustee was filled by electing Mr. Sheo Raj Singh as a trustee.
  7. It was decided to approach Renaissance Publishers for publication of Roy’s books on condition of purchase of 100 copies.

In the evening on 16th November, 2019 a discussion on ‘Challenges to Rationalist Movements in India: What is the way Forward?’was held. Dr. Hamid Dabholkar of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti, Maharashtra, Mr. Avinash Patil, National Vice-President of Federation of Indian Rationalist Association, Maharashtra, G. Veeranna, President, Andhra Pradesh Rationalist Association, K. Srivanasa Chary, Vice-President of Andhra Pradesh Rationalist association and Mr. Kiran Nanavati, member of the Board of Trustees, IRI gave their presentations. Mr. N.D. Pancholi, Vice-Chairman, IRI and Dr. Ramesh Awasthi, Chairman, IRI, also addressed the meeting to introduce Indian Renaissance Institute and its activities to the audience.

On 17th November 2019 a discussion on the ‘Political Situation in the Country and the Role of Radical Humanists’ was held in which Dr. Awasthi, N.D. Pancholi, Bhaskar Sur and others members took part.

Mahi Pal Singh

(Secretary, IRI)

12 December 2019