In a major turn of events at the Cine and TV Artistes Association (CINTAA), eight elected members of the Executive Committee have stepped down from their positions and from the committee itself with immediate effect, citing a lack of confidence in the current functioning and demanding new elections.
‘Poonam Dhillon has repeatedly taken unilateral decisions’
CINTAA General Secretary Upasana Singh has announced the names of the eight elected members: Hemant Pandey, Mukesh Rishi, Sahila Chadha, Hetal Parmar, Puneet Issar, Vindu Dara Singh, Vikas Verma, and Deepak Parashar.
In their joint resignation letter, the members stated that their decision was prompted by what they called repeated violations of the principles of collective decision-making, consultation, and constitutional governance. They claimed that the association’s operations had become increasingly centralized around CINTAA President Poonam Dhillon and Senior Vice President Padmini Kolhapure, together with a group of other Executive Committee members.
According to a portion of the letter, President Poonam Dhillon has repeatedly made unilateral decisions, sent official communications from her personal ID to government officials, independently determined messages to industry bodies using the official CINTAA ID, and represented the Association publicly and before government, quasi-judicial, and industry entities without informing, consulting, or obtaining approval from the Executive Committee, thereby undermining the principle of collective responsibility.
The departing members claimed that numerous decisions were made without sufficient consultation with, or authorization from, the Executive Committee.
The letter additionally claims that Dhillon and Kolhapure went to government offices with privately hired lawyers, who were allegedly presented as CINTAA’s legal representatives despite lacking any authorization or approval from the Executive Committee.
These assertions form part of the departing members’ stated reasons for their loss of confidence in how the association is currently being run.
'Out of 11 members, 8 elected members have resigned'
CINTAA General Secretary Upasana Singh, speaking to ANI, confirmed that 11 members had resigned, of whom eight were elected Executive Committee members.
Singh said the eight elected members had submitted their resignations along with complaints outlining their reasons for stepping down.
Singh stated, "Of our 11 members, eight elected representatives have stepped down and handed their resignations to me. They have also filed complaints alleging that Padmini Kolhapure and Poonam Dhillon are abusing their authority."Singh also expressed worries regarding the use of personal email accounts for conducting official communications.
She explained that official communication from an association should ordinarily go through its official email system so that there is transparency and a record accessible to the organisation.
When an email needs to be sent to any organization in an official capacity, we cannot use our personal email ID. This is standard practice everywhere. In this case, Poonam ji provides her personal email ID to organizations and asks them to send messages to her there. She does not gain any advantage from this, but it lacks transparency," the actor added.
Meanwhile, addressing the issue, Advocate Suvigya Vidyarthi, representing CINTAA, stated that the association has not been disbanded.
In a statement, Vidyarthi clarified that the claim circulating about the CINTAA Executive Committee being dissolved is completely incorrect, misleading, and without any legal validity. Under the CINTAA Constitution, the Executive Committee can only be dissolved if more than 50% of its elected members resign, which has not happened in this situation. He further noted that, in accordance with the Constitution, new members have been appointed to replace those who left, selected from the next highest vote-getters.
