Khambatta vs Karanjawalla

"As you are aware, our term of office at the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat (APP) has expired long time back. In fact on June 10, 2006 we will also complete the six months’ grace period granted to us by our APP constitution (as per clause 7-A) to function as caretakers. Why are you dithering on the issue of declaring elections and seeking a fresh mandate? The results of the election will give you enough proof of you and your policies’ acceptability amongst the samast anjuman…” Beleaguered APP trustee Porus Karanja­walla’s caustic response to the acerbic letter he received from APP president and World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) chairman Areez Khambatta indicated that not everyone is willing to toe Khambatta’s line and yield to his pressure tactics.

Khambatta (left) and Karanjawalla

Accusing Karanjawalla for his "hostile attitude…underhand tactics… malafide intent,” Khambatta wrote him a nasty letter. Although differences between the two had been simmering for the last couple of years the differences surfaced on May 10, 2006 when Kham­batta alleged, "Your absence at the lunch hosted in honor of our true scholars Khojeste Mistree and Adi Doctor, our guest speakers, and your rude and offensive behavior during the Anju­man meeting towards them by sitting amongst the audience instead of the stage and then addressing the audience with your views instead of asking questions to the speakers during the question answer session did not befit you as a sitting trustee. Your behavior that day finally opened my eyes to your true colors and therefore I decided it was high time I spoke about your sly behavior ever since our Ahmedabad Federation meeting (in December 2004) when most of the Anjumans had restrained the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India from joining the cosmopolitan world body…

"The way you are encouraging ‘conver­tists’ like Gandhi and Company (referring to Keki Gandhi, joint honorary secretary of the Federation) is even worse than being a convert. It makes no sense for you to go on saying you are very orthodox and yet at the same time encouraging persons who are hell bent on bringing in and accepting conversion and promoting other anti-religious activities in our community. That is not true orthodoxy and by keeping quiet and allowing your convertists Gandhi and Company to continue fooling the community you are failing in your duty as a sitting trustee…”

Refuting Khambatta’s personal allegation which he described as "an act of character assassination…frivolous, malicious and a bundle of incorrect statements and half-truths,” Karanjawalla responded on May 26, 2006, "It is quite obvious that your aim and objective is to malign those who do not fall in line with your thought process and who do not succumb to your dictates… It is neither mandatory nor obligatory for me to attend a lunch hosted in honor of a person whom you term as ‘religious scholar’… You term me to be worse than a convertist and unreligious because of my closeness to certain respected individuals who have spent so many years doing yeoman services for our community. What would one term a person whose friend, philosopher and guide is Khojeste Mistree? As you know, Mistree had whole-heartedly supported the navjote of Ne­ville Wadia, son of Christian parents… when he was in his late 70s. Would it be wrong calling such a person a ‘dhongi’ and a pseudo Zoroastrian who uses religion for achieving political goals and for holding on to power unconstitutionally by misguiding one’s brethren?…

"There could be a long list drawn of your rude, crude and abrasive behavior with board members, mobeds, staff members, members of the samast anjuman and local/outstation guests…”

Karanjawalla’s "mischievous and negative role by hosting a simultaneous lunch (at the time of the Federation meeting in Ahmedabad) in honor of your convertist godfather Gandhi, by misguiding PYLA (Parsi Youth League of Ahmedabad) that it was hosted on behalf of APP,” has continued to irk Khambatta. He added, "This sly behavior of yours is your specialty but fortunately here too you were clearly exposed by PYLA…proving (who) was really the culprit…” Karanjawalla’s earlier opposition to the APP donating five lakh rupees to the Ushta-Te Foundation (UTF — another community organization in Ahmedabad) was again brought up in this letter.

Charging Khambatta for playing with words to suit himself and feeling obliged to explain in detail the genesis of the luncheon Karanjawalla countered, "Will someone please let me know as to what crime/sin/unconstitutional act have I committed by hosting a lunch from my own finances and in my personal capacity for the board members of PYLA… (and) for a few Fed delegates who are known to me since years… (having) been a recipient of their hospitality whenever I have visited their city…? …Do you have the guts to confess…that in the recent past you have more than once said that you repent giving five lakhs to UTF from APP’s corpus and five lakhs of your own?”

In his concluding paragraph Khambatta mentioned, "You are aware that our Panchayat has benefited by more than Rs 20 lakhs by my investment policies. Similarly our Panchayat during my tenure as president of five years has attained the maximum achievements and has achieved increase in investments as well as increase in income which has not been achieved even in the last 25 years…”

An unimpressed Karanjawalla retaliated: "The last para of your letter goes to show your self-centered mentality of I, me, myself. Are you trying to say that the Panchayat has performed well in the last five years only because of you? Nobody else has had any contribution to its achievements?…

"Keep trying to create a rift between me and PYLA. Keep trying to create a rift between me and UTF. Keep trying to create a rift between me and the samast anjuman, all with an eye on the ensuing elections and promoting the candidature for presi­dent­ship of your ‘yes man.’ Dear Areez Uncle, I assure you and your ill informers that you will never succeed in this heinous act of yours…”