Editorial Viewpoint
Buying peace
The September 23 and 24 meeting of the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India in Bombay may not have achieved any great accomplishments but just the fact that the meeting could take place was in itself a feat.
The Khergam Parsi Anjuman representative Tannaz Parakh told the gathering on the second day of the meet that “we have been told to have a fruitful meeting today.”
Without some kind of commitment to restraint themselves, the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) led orthodox camp could have easily disrupted the Sunday general body meeting.
Even at the executive council meeting on Saturday, the first half of the day saw Federation vice president and Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat (APP) president Areez Khambatta single-handedly take on all opponents, real or imagined, interrupt the proceedings, monopolize the microphone and refer to his fellow delegates as “chamchas (stooges), mongoose, rat.” Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustees Dinshaw Tamboly and Burjor Antia in exasperation threatened to walk out if Khambatta was not removed from the meeting or censured.
Federation president and BPP chairman Minoo Shroff’s tactic of adjourning the meeting for lunch saved an ugly situation from becoming an open split but it demonstrated the weaknesses in the present rules and regulations of the Federation’s constitution.
While Khambatta of course is a genuine representative being president and trustee of the APP (though this is being questioned), his disregard of Federation protocol and niceties is bolstered by the support he receives from unelected nominees who represent small, sometimes disaffected anjumans, who either have a grouse against the BPP and/or the Federation or are unconcerned about attending or oblivious to the bad name their anjumans earn. Khambatta’s legitimacy is being questioned by an APP co-trustee and one of the committee members who alleged the five-year term of office and a six-month extension period are over. They argue Khambhatta and his other co-trustees have no right to attend the Federation meeting as APP delegates since their terms have expired. As Khambatta jokingly told a fellow delegate during the lunch break that while he was alienated on the first day, the next day at the general body meeting he would be the “bandmaster.”
When WAPIZ founder member and Belgaum Parsi Zarthosti Anjuman representative Khojeste Mistree raised the subject of Doongerwadi during the open forum session and Satara Zartostri Anjuman representative and former BPP trustee Jamsheed Kanga countered his claims it was the WAPIZ supporters who shouted “b…s…” and caste aspersions on Kanga’s integrity while the rest of the delegates listened attentively.
Even though many may not have agreed with Mistree’s views on the perfect functioning of the dakhmenashini process in Bombay, they did not interrupt his talk. But with Kanga, the WAPIZ self imposed veneer of respectability broke down. As one delegate dryly quipped, “chhélé tau jaat batlavee (in the end they showed their true colors).”
Of course the delegate from Belgaum has no business to criticize the functioning of another anjuman in the Federation, in this case the BPP. But then these nuances can be dispersed when convenient.
WAPIZ founder member and unsuccessful candidate for the BPP trusteeship Yazdi Desai who in the past has represented the anjumans of Panchgani and Jabalpur, this time represented the Badnera Amravati Parsi Anjuman.
Could Desai be familiar with the workings, problems, properties, trust deeds and people of all three anjumans? If ever there was a farcical misuse of faulty constitutional clauses, this must rank among the top-most.
Allaying the fear of the smaller anjumans that the proposed changes in the constitution would lessen their voting powers, the Federation leadership decided to constitute a subcommittee to study the proposals and put forth thei
The Khergam Parsi Anjuman representative Tannaz Parakh told the gathering on the second day of the meet that “we have been told to have a fruitful meeting today.”
Without some kind of commitment to restraint themselves, the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) led orthodox camp could have easily disrupted the Sunday general body meeting.
Even at the executive council meeting on Saturday, the first half of the day saw Federation vice president and Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat (APP) president Areez Khambatta single-handedly take on all opponents, real or imagined, interrupt the proceedings, monopolize the microphone and refer to his fellow delegates as “chamchas (stooges), mongoose, rat.” Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustees Dinshaw Tamboly and Burjor Antia in exasperation threatened to walk out if Khambatta was not removed from the meeting or censured.
Federation president and BPP chairman Minoo Shroff’s tactic of adjourning the meeting for lunch saved an ugly situation from becoming an open split but it demonstrated the weaknesses in the present rules and regulations of the Federation’s constitution.
While Khambatta of course is a genuine representative being president and trustee of the APP (though this is being questioned), his disregard of Federation protocol and niceties is bolstered by the support he receives from unelected nominees who represent small, sometimes disaffected anjumans, who either have a grouse against the BPP and/or the Federation or are unconcerned about attending or oblivious to the bad name their anjumans earn. Khambatta’s legitimacy is being questioned by an APP co-trustee and one of the committee members who alleged the five-year term of office and a six-month extension period are over. They argue Khambhatta and his other co-trustees have no right to attend the Federation meeting as APP delegates since their terms have expired. As Khambatta jokingly told a fellow delegate during the lunch break that while he was alienated on the first day, the next day at the general body meeting he would be the “bandmaster.”
When WAPIZ founder member and Belgaum Parsi Zarthosti Anjuman representative Khojeste Mistree raised the subject of Doongerwadi during the open forum session and Satara Zartostri Anjuman representative and former BPP trustee Jamsheed Kanga countered his claims it was the WAPIZ supporters who shouted “b…s…” and caste aspersions on Kanga’s integrity while the rest of the delegates listened attentively.
Even though many may not have agreed with Mistree’s views on the perfect functioning of the dakhmenashini process in Bombay, they did not interrupt his talk. But with Kanga, the WAPIZ self imposed veneer of respectability broke down. As one delegate dryly quipped, “chhélé tau jaat batlavee (in the end they showed their true colors).”
Of course the delegate from Belgaum has no business to criticize the functioning of another anjuman in the Federation, in this case the BPP. But then these nuances can be dispersed when convenient.
WAPIZ founder member and unsuccessful candidate for the BPP trusteeship Yazdi Desai who in the past has represented the anjumans of Panchgani and Jabalpur, this time represented the Badnera Amravati Parsi Anjuman.
Could Desai be familiar with the workings, problems, properties, trust deeds and people of all three anjumans? If ever there was a farcical misuse of faulty constitutional clauses, this must rank among the top-most.
Allaying the fear of the smaller anjumans that the proposed changes in the constitution would lessen their voting powers, the Federation leadership decided to constitute a subcommittee to study the proposals and put forth thei
◆ ◆ ◆
From the archive