“They have gone to the extent of maligning us personally. They will not go scot-free,” thundered Srikanth HS, honorary secretary of the Bowring Institute in Bengaluru, at a tense general body meeting in June 2025.

Club members had learnt three months earlier that an advance of Rs 10 crore had been paid to build a second unit of the club, 100 kms away. Many among the 300-odd members who gathered that day demanded answers: Who took this decision? Why had money already been handed over to a builder?

Srikanth’s combative 59-minute speech was a mark of the hostilities playing out within the 157-year-old institution that counts Bengaluru’s elite among its members.

The fallout from the meeting was almost immediate. Club president Bhaskar S resigned, only to be accused by Srikanth (and the mana

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