Is ISKCON Bombay Authorizing Illegal Actions? 05 24 26

 

The gopis are very expert in: playing many types of musical instruments; composing songs and singing; composing poetry; dancing in various styles; cooking for the master; making nice dresses, jewelry and ornaments; making flower garlands; predicting events from astrology; making music on water pots filled with different degrees of water; gardening; protecting the innocent animals; drawing designs on the cows; talking to the birds and making cuckoo bird sounds; sending messages using parrots ... and many other arts. They sing to describe Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavan. Of all the gopis, Srimate Radharani is the leader and she is most expert in all the in all these arts. 

PADA: OK it looks like ISKCON Bombay has authorized their people to continue to take -- tax exempt -- donations without notification to the donors that the ISKCON tax status has changed / been revoked. And that means the people taking the donations are acting illegally, but evidently under orders from the ISKCON leaders like Basu Ghosh. That means the people taking the donations could be in legal trouble, along with their temples, along with ISKCON itself.

OK the guys in this video seem to say that the persons taking legal liable responsibility for these illegal acts are the little peons who are doing the collecting, while the leaders will simply take the money and walk out and leave, which has happened already a number of times with ISKCON. 

What these guys are complaining is -- that Basu Ghosh's "taking donations in the normal course" is acting like ISKCON still has their valid tax exempt status. They do not. In the comments someone says that ISKCON Bangalore (Madhu Pandit) has not been notified of these changes yet, because they are still giving tax credits, but that means some people are confusing Madhu Pandit's ISKCON and Bombay ISKCON. That shows what a mess these Bombay people are making for everyone else.

In any case, this raises important issues. If the rank and file people are being told by the leaders to continue collecting donations for a charity that has lost its charity status, then that is illegal. And the rumor is that Basu Ghosh's letter was supposed to be an internal secretive document and not public. That would mean: they are secretly ordering their people to do illegal acts. At least that is what is sounds like. 

So lets ask Bombay ISKCON what they are actually advising their members to do at this stage. And if they are advising illegal acts, the LEADERS should be reported to the tax board for making the followers conduct illegal collecting. The followers should be shielded and protected from legal action, since they are following orders from the leaders. And if the leaders are ordering illegal actions, they should be reported to the police and etc. But something is messed up here, and we hope someone can give us a broader perspective on all this with more details.

As usual, people are sending these things to PADA, having given up the ghost of trying to get any sensible response from GBC leaders. This is a mess, that is what we do know for sure. But yeah, a number of other people have told us the same thing -- the Basu Ghosh letter does not make a clear cut order what to do here, and it looks like he is advising cheating the tax board. 

That is what the letter appears to suggest. This needs to be fixed for the sake of the people collecting funds, and to save ISKCON from another big scandal of illegally cheating on taxes. Not what we need right now. 

ys pd angel108B@yahoo.com