The Hindu & Jain Temple of Las Vegas was built on the notion of bringing in the diverse Hindu tapestry from across India and binding them together in Las Vegas. However, that dream is traumatized by some of the Board’s conceited plutocrats who have abandoned the spiritual aspirations of the growing Southern Nevada’s Hindu community.

The contemptuous attitude of the Board Trustees took the front seat as some of the trustees and regulars accused certain members of manipulating the Executive Committee election by ignoring the adopted bylaws. 

As per article 7.2 of the bylaws, the nomination committee to select and propose officers consists of the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, the President, and the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Mandir. Chairman Jagdish Mehta, President Paresh Joshi, and Secretary Ashok Sarkar should serve as the election officers. The Board of Trustees ignored the first step in the election process, the formation of the nomination committee. This is a blatant disregard for the Temple bylaws.

Last month, the mandir administration announced an election for the new Executive Committee for 2024-2025 and asked the community via email dated November 6^th, 2023, for self-nomination for four executive positions with a deadline to apply by November 30^th, 2023. 

However, an email sent out on November 30^th, 2023, with a paragraph ending in a one-liner statement, “Ensure your nomination is sent to us by December 6, 2023, at the latest”, with no reason given for the deadline extension.

The consensus among many community members is the deadline extension is to accommodate specific individuals close to one group of Board Trustees, although there were candidates who self-nominated themselves to take a position on the new Executive Committee before the November 30^th deadline. “The process of electing the Executive Committee was rigged when the decision was made to extend the deadline,” said one dedicated visitor of the Temple community. 

Additionally, as interpreted by the bylaws, Article 7.1 (second paragraph), only General Body members are allowed to be members of the Executive Committee. As per Article 1.2(b) of the newly adopted bylaws, General Membership status (“General Member”) shall be granted to those persons, individual or couple, providing a donation of at least one hundred dollars ($100) to the society or Temple, whether through a puja or otherwise. 

This publication has learned that some of the newly announced Executive Committee members are not the General Body members, as there is no record of a required $100 donation to the Temple by the newly elected EC members.

Simply put, some newly elected officers are not legally eligible to be candidates for any executive positions or assume any position on the executive committee. The Board of Trustees failed to do due diligence in checking whether the elected officials were qualified to apply for the executive position. Why did the Trustees do this illegal, futile election exercise without checking the candidates’ eligibility? 

“Board of Trustees have squandered the chance to make significant “trust” gains by not following the election bylaws. They had the opportunity to erase the damage done in the last two years by the current executive committee,” said a couple of concerned community members.

Some active Hindu community members have requested Chairman Jagdish Mehta to void the elections held during the last board meeting and immediately announce a new election of the Executive Committee with a proper nomination committee to review and recommend the selected candidates to the Board of Trustees to vote on.