“FIVA never promotes the daily use of historic vehicles”, says FIVA general secretary reacting to Nitin Dossa, VCCFI chairman’s statements

Following the FIVA’s move to appoint the FHVI (Federation of Historic Vehicles of India) as their India representative in place of the VCCFI, the chairman of the latter came out with a very strong reaction to the development which you can read here. In that he accused the FIVA, the international body governing and promoting the historic vehicle movement worldwide, of being biased and also accused office bearers including the past president of having vested interests. The FIVA (Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens based in Paris) via their general secretary Gian Mario Mollar have responded to the statements made by Nitin Dossa saying that one of their main problems with the VCCFI was that “its lobbying efforts weren’t very inclusive, they were mainly oriented at the sporadic use of exclusive historic vehicles of 50 years and older.” This means that the Ambassador and Premier Padmini, not forget the older Royal Enfield and Jawa motorcycles and a plethora of scooters, provided they are over 30 years old, will now fall under the purview of historic vehicles in India.

We have also spoken to Dr Ravi Prakash, president of the FHVI on his plans for the vintage and classic car movement in India which you can read here.

Here’s the full reaction from the FIVA to the VCCFI chairman Nitin Dossa’s statements.

Reaction to, “Mr Gautam Sen, the vice president [of FIVA] has a conflict of interest because he is an advisor to FHVI”

“The decision has been taken on the basis of an overall comparison of the two FIVA member organisations. Mr Gautam Sen did not actively take part in the ANF decision process, other than by giving support to the decision, like all other General Committee (GC) members did as well. Interestingly, unlike the other GC members, he is not directly related to a member club of his country of origin or residence (neither is he a member or advisor to FHVI). But, like all other FIVA officials, he is happy to advise any member club, when asked to do so.”

For VCCFI chairman Nitin Dossa's perspective on this development, click here

Reaction to, “VCCFI asked FIVA for a list of [FHVI] members, but we didn’t get it. “70-80% members [of FHVI] have nothing to do with vintage and classic car movement”

“FIVA only asks for information of clubs on their membership when they apply to become a FIVA National Member. FIVA’s main interest on that occasion is if the candidate club has members in different parts of the country. VCCFI is a member since over 20 years, FHVI since over 2 years. Because the decision FIVA had to take was on the ANF status, not on membership as such, there was no reason to ask for this type of information. After membership acceptance FIVA only asks her members to inform how many individual members her club members are represented (for calculation of the annual contribution fee), but doesn’t ask for names or other membership data, in first place because of practical reasons but also because of data protection reasons. So there was no ground whatsoever to provide this kind of information, neither to VCCFI, nor to FHVI.”

For details regarding FIVA's appointment of FHVI to spearhead vintage automobile movement in India, click here.

Reaction to, “FHVI has no experience of holding major events”

“The experience or ability to organise events is no criteria for FIVA to accept or maintain a club as a member, or for ANF appointment. Many big FIVA federations do not organise any events themselves, they leave that to their member clubs, or to other organisers, be it professionals or amateurs. Both organisations in India have shown their organisational skills, but as mentioned, this was not a real criteria for FIVA’s decision. As far as we know even one of India’s most prestigious events, the 21 Gun Salute Concours d ’Elegance, is not organised by VCCFI, it’s just supported and facilitated by the latter. The role of a FIVA ANF is not to organise events, but to promote that events are carried in accordance with FIVA’s worldwide accepted Events Code, to monitor this, and also to be alert that no events are organised that could bring harm to the reputation and image of the historic vehicle movement. Actually, for FIVA it counts more if an ANF is able to organize a General Assembly or seminars, than an event.

Reaction to, “Mr Gautam Sen, VP of FIVA started calling up members saying do not join VCCFI”

“FIVA has no information on such action, and when it was done, this was not on its request. Maybe the question is related to another episode of FIVA’s relation with VCCFI. That had to do with a name change, VCCCI became VCCFI in 2017. Because of confusing information, FIVA then had good reason to believe that VCCFI was a new legal entity. Only after a painstaking fact-checking operation, FIVA could concluded that VCCFI indeed was the continuation of VCCCI. Evidence that VCCCI did not adequately represent the historic vehicle community in India made FIVA decide to withdraw VCCFI’s / VCCCI’s ANF status for India in the year 2018.”

Reaction to, “They [FIVA] are insisting that in Delhi every day the cars should be used”

A look at FIVA’s historic vehicle definition alone shows that this this statement cannot be true. FIVA never promotes the daily use of historic vehicles. One of the problems FIVA had with the way VCCFI acted was that its lobbying efforts weren’t very inclusive, they were mainly oriented at the sporadic use of exclusive historic vehicles of 50 years and older which anyway often are transported by trailer or truck from event to event, not on popular cars and motorcycles that very much belong to India’s motoring DNA. According to FIVA’s definition a vehicle is historic, once it turns 30 years and complies with the other elements of FIVA’s definition.”

Reaction to, “FIVA is a biased body. We were never given a hearing”

FIVA’s current president Mr Tiddo Bresters was in India last February, to get an impression of the Indian historic vehicle scene. On that occasion he met, separately, VCCFI’s Mr Nitin Dossa and FHVI’s Dr Ravi Prakash. Both in Mumbai. To his regret, a joint meeting wasn’t feasible; Mr Dossa didn’t seem to be interested in that. After that visit and further deliberation of the matter by FIVA’s General Committee, exactly the same set of questions were sent to both organizations, in order to get the feedback FIVA needed to come to an informed decision, so to allow FIVA to compare the qualities the two organisations offer for carrying out the tasks of an ANF, and thus help fulfill FIVA’S mission: Protection (advocacy of the interests of the historic vehicle movement), Preservation (capacity to issue FIVA ID Cards) and Promotion (organization or facilitation and monitoring of events). FIVA’s ultimate goal, in India like anywhere else, is to have just one strong, united national federation in each of her now 70 member countries).