Eight elected members of the Cine and TV Artistes Association (CINTAA) Executive Committee have resigned from their posts as well as from the committee with immediate effect, citing a loss of confidence in the association’s current functioning. The members have also called for fresh elections.
The resignations were submitted to CINTAA General Secretary Upasana Singh. The eight members are Hemant Pandey, Mukesh Rishi, Sahila Chadha, Heta Parmar, Puneet Issar, Vindu Dara Singh, Vikas Verma and Deepak Parashar.
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In a joint letter, the members listed alleged repeated instances of the association moving away from collective decision-making, consultation and constitutional governance. They alleged that decision-making had increasingly come into the hands of CINTAA President Poonam Dhillon and Senior Vice President Padmini Kolhapure, along with some other members of the Executive Committee.
One of the key allegations in the letter concerns the manner in which official communication and representation on behalf of CINTAA were being handled. The members alleged that Dhillon had taken several decisions independently, including communicating with government officials through her ID and deciding on communications with industry bodies through the association’s official ID.
The members also raised questions over the alleged involvement of lawyers in meetings with government officials. They claimed that Dhillon and Kolhapure had visited government offices accompanied by privately engaged lawyers who were introduced as CINTAA lawyers, despite allegedly having no authorisation or sanction from the Executive Committee.
Confirming the resignations to ANI, Singh said 11 members in total had stepped down, eight of whom were elected members of the Executive Committee. She said the eight elected members had submitted both their resignations and complaints detailing their concerns.
“Out of our 11 members, eight elected members have resigned and submitted their resignations to me. They have also submitted their complaints, stating that Padmini Kolhapure and Poonam Dhillon are misusing their positions,” Singh said.
Singh also questioned the use of personal email accounts for official CINTAA correspondence. She said communications on behalf of an association should ordinarily be routed through its official email system, allowing the organisation to maintain transparency and retain a record of its correspondence that can be accessed by the association.