The quasi-social world of WhatsApp groups — professional and otherwise — have now become our public platforms, and often a setting for public spats. FedAOA (Federation of Apartment Owners Association) internal WhatsApp group, too, is undergoing a crisis of sorts over the removal of a member from the online forum.
On Saturday, the media WhatsApp group of Federation of Apartment Owners Association (FedAOA) was on fire over the removal of a member from the forum.
Lipika Bhushan, resident of ATS Advantage, Indirapuram — in a series of messages on this media group — questioned the removal of Mukesh Paliwal from FedAOA’s internal WhatsApp group.
Paliwal is a board member of ATS Advantage’s AOA. He was removed after he questioned his co-AOA members on the internal group regarding a CCTV footage that has gone viral in Indirapuram.
In the video, AOA President of ATS Advantage, Sanjay Jain, along with others, can be seen asking an elderly man to leave the hall while he is reciting Sunderkand [a religious text].
The footage is of the same day when the AOA locked the keertan hall of the society.
Paliwal had posted the video and condemned the AOA’s act, calling it “horrible behaviour”.
The chats on the internal group of FedAOA
DK Maurya, moderator of the internal group, said, “Paliwal had violated the group’s code of conduct. We have repeatedly told group members that they must not discuss their society’s internal matters on the federation’s WhatsApp group.”
However, Paliwal felt the issue had larger implications, and could not be treated as “society’s internal matter”. He also said that no clarification was sought before removing him. Instead, he was directly removed.
Paliwal alleged that it was done at the behest of AOA office bearers.
When City Spidey asked Maurya, he admitted that an “authorised representative of ATS” had complained to him. “The complainant asked how I can allow a person to defame his society’s president, secretary and board members on a public forum,” he said.
Calling Paliwal’s message a violation of the forum’s decorum, Sanjay Jain, AOA president of ATS Advantage, had asked the admin to “take note of it”.
However, when City Spidey approached him for comments, he said he wasn’t aware of the matter.
Maurya explained, “The federation is a nodal body to help AOAs implement provision and bylaws of UP Apartment Act 2010. However, if an AOA is not adhering to the bylaws only then we can intervene.”
Lipika and Paliwal claimed that the matter had been escalated on the internal group because a bylaw had been violated. “The decision to lock the hall was taken without calling a general body meeting,” alleged both of them.
She is also of the opinion that if any AOA tries to stifle voices of dissent, FedAOA should then provide a forum where everybody can be heard.
Alok Kumar, President of FedAOA, said, “The federation represents AOAs. We are not meant to communicate with residents.”
