Editorial Viewpoint
The purging of the Federation
The orthodox noose on premier community institutions appears to be tightening with the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India being the latest addition.
With no date yet set for the two-year overdue annual general meeting of the all India body, the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) along with their supporters and sympathizers could end up occupying several important posts in the 70-member body.
Anticipating a victory for former Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat (APP) president Areez Khambatta in his quest for reelection as vice president West Zone B of the Federation, the APP has withdrawn from membership of the Federation. They reportedly did not want to remain on a body whose representative from their area would be the churlish and antagonistic Khambatta.
For West Zone A a nomination has reportedly been received from Poona Parsi Panchayat (PPP) trustee Porusasp Mehta, a staunch WAPIZ supporter. Last time Poona lost out on the vice presidency as they had not paid their annual dues by the required date. The seat went to Rustom Cursetjee of the Thana Anjuman, a middle-of-the-road liberal. January 15, 2009 was the last date for receiving nominations.
For the South Zone vice presidency there is a move to replace Secunderabad anjuman’s Jehangir Bisney as vice president with the orthodox Kerfegar Antia of Hyderabad.
Only the North and East regions will be free of the WAPIZ machinations with the Delhi Parsi Anjuman (DPA) retaining the North Zone vice presidency [formerly held by the late DPA president Lt Gen (retd) Adi Sethna; present DPA president Dadi Mistry should be the next north zone vice president]. Calcutta’s Bahadur Postwalla will probably occupy the post currently held by Jamshedpur anjuman president Jamshed Irani of Tatas. Jamshedpur and Calcutta have reportedly agreed to a rotation of the vice presidency post.
The crucial poss of Federation joint honorary secretaries held by Delhi’s Keki Gandhi and Bombay Parsi Punchayet’s Dinshaw Mehta is undecided. Mehta of course is now ex officio president of the Federation and Rustom Tirandaz as the second senior most trustee (having served a seven-year term earlier) should traditionally be one of the two joint secretaries.
WAPIZ would want to oust Gandhi who is viewed as a liberal. At the Ahmedabad Federation meeting in December 2004 WAPIZ founder trustee Yazdi Desai asked members opposed to Gandhi’s continuation in office to stand up which many WAPIZ minions and others did. Desai then represented the Panchgani anjuman, one of several small anjumans that WAPIZ employed to enable their members to attend the meetings.
But Mehta who is walking a tightrope between wanting to retain Gandhi on the one hand and appeasing his WAPIZ allies on the other, may try to put off the day of reckoning. Between Khambatta and BPP trustee and WAPIZ founder trustee Khojeste Mistree, they have outmaneuvered the liberal elements.
WAPIZ would also dearly want to see the Parsi Press barred from the Federation meeting just as they are not welcome to or are excluded from most WAPIZ functions. Khambatta has urged such a ban in the past.
But the Federation meetings are an opportunity for anjumans to present a public face to the community. Shutting out the Press could mean losing the opportunity to inform the community at large about events and developments. If the Parsi Press is denied entry then only the fortnightly WAPIZ Page would be in a position to report on the meeting. But its credibility would be suspect amongst a sizeable population of the community.
Mehta also probably would not want to bar the Press during his watch. Not only would it be a black mark on his chairmanship but would raise speculation that the member anjumans have something sinister to hide. Four of Mehta’s co-trustees, Arnavaz Mistry, Jimmy Mistry, Noshir Dadrawala and Tirandaz may also not agree to such a drastic and unpopular step (not that the Parsi Press is popular to begin with). Whatever its shortcomings a free Press is still one of the integral components of a democratic framework. By acclaiming the introduction of adult franchise, which WAPIZ incidentally opposed — with Mehta’s tacit and limited support — by banning the Press, Mehta would be taking a step in the reverse direction. He and his co-trustees have promised transparency. Prohibiting the Press would be in blatant negation of that idealistic concept.
WAPIZ’s efforts to dominate the Federation may be with the intention of making the all-India body a member of WAPIZ and then claiming WAPIZ to be the much desired but elusive world body initially proposed at the first World Zoroastrian Congress held in Tehran in 1960.
They may also aspire to purge the Federation of liberal anjumans such as Delhi, Jamshedpur, Lucknow and others that involve non-Parsi spouses in the affairs of the anjuman, thus reducing the all-India body to a rump.
To add to Mehta and WAPIZ’s unease, Rustom Hormuzdiyar, who presided over the recent BPP trusteeship elections, has been appointed the chief executive officer of the Jam-e-Jamshed Weekly. Mehta and WAPIZ publicly questioned Hormuzdiyar’s integrity and Mehta was the only trustee of the then board to oppose his nomination. With rumors flying that the ownership or management of the Weekly has changed hands from the Dubash family to Adult Franchise for Progress (AFP) founder and noted jurist Berjis Desai (an allegation Desai denies), the paper whose credibility suffered during the trusteeship elections will now function as a viable critic of Mehta and WAPIZ.
If that isn’t enough to give Mehta sleepless nights the WAPIZ Page of January 9, 2009 has launched a frontal attack on Dadrawala over the issue of the charity commissioner (CC) order on allotment of 104 flats. Having taken on the CC, a publicly divided BPP board can only damage the august institution’s image further.
Questioning Dadrawala’s bona fides to augment community housing, the WAPIZ Page discredited the trust management expert claiming “the man is known for his empty, pompous words.”
Whether the WAPIZ attack had Mehta’s blessings or not is uncertain. But with the new board still to complete 100 days in office, its energies and priorities appear to be headed in diverse directions.
With no date yet set for the two-year overdue annual general meeting of the all India body, the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) along with their supporters and sympathizers could end up occupying several important posts in the 70-member body.
Anticipating a victory for former Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat (APP) president Areez Khambatta in his quest for reelection as vice president West Zone B of the Federation, the APP has withdrawn from membership of the Federation. They reportedly did not want to remain on a body whose representative from their area would be the churlish and antagonistic Khambatta.
For West Zone A a nomination has reportedly been received from Poona Parsi Panchayat (PPP) trustee Porusasp Mehta, a staunch WAPIZ supporter. Last time Poona lost out on the vice presidency as they had not paid their annual dues by the required date. The seat went to Rustom Cursetjee of the Thana Anjuman, a middle-of-the-road liberal. January 15, 2009 was the last date for receiving nominations.
For the South Zone vice presidency there is a move to replace Secunderabad anjuman’s Jehangir Bisney as vice president with the orthodox Kerfegar Antia of Hyderabad.
Only the North and East regions will be free of the WAPIZ machinations with the Delhi Parsi Anjuman (DPA) retaining the North Zone vice presidency [formerly held by the late DPA president Lt Gen (retd) Adi Sethna; present DPA president Dadi Mistry should be the next north zone vice president]. Calcutta’s Bahadur Postwalla will probably occupy the post currently held by Jamshedpur anjuman president Jamshed Irani of Tatas. Jamshedpur and Calcutta have reportedly agreed to a rotation of the vice presidency post.
The crucial poss of Federation joint honorary secretaries held by Delhi’s Keki Gandhi and Bombay Parsi Punchayet’s Dinshaw Mehta is undecided. Mehta of course is now ex officio president of the Federation and Rustom Tirandaz as the second senior most trustee (having served a seven-year term earlier) should traditionally be one of the two joint secretaries.
WAPIZ would want to oust Gandhi who is viewed as a liberal. At the Ahmedabad Federation meeting in December 2004 WAPIZ founder trustee Yazdi Desai asked members opposed to Gandhi’s continuation in office to stand up which many WAPIZ minions and others did. Desai then represented the Panchgani anjuman, one of several small anjumans that WAPIZ employed to enable their members to attend the meetings.
But Mehta who is walking a tightrope between wanting to retain Gandhi on the one hand and appeasing his WAPIZ allies on the other, may try to put off the day of reckoning. Between Khambatta and BPP trustee and WAPIZ founder trustee Khojeste Mistree, they have outmaneuvered the liberal elements.
WAPIZ would also dearly want to see the Parsi Press barred from the Federation meeting just as they are not welcome to or are excluded from most WAPIZ functions. Khambatta has urged such a ban in the past.
But the Federation meetings are an opportunity for anjumans to present a public face to the community. Shutting out the Press could mean losing the opportunity to inform the community at large about events and developments. If the Parsi Press is denied entry then only the fortnightly WAPIZ Page would be in a position to report on the meeting. But its credibility would be suspect amongst a sizeable population of the community.
Mehta also probably would not want to bar the Press during his watch. Not only would it be a black mark on his chairmanship but would raise speculation that the member anjumans have something sinister to hide. Four of Mehta’s co-trustees, Arnavaz Mistry, Jimmy Mistry, Noshir Dadrawala and Tirandaz may also not agree to such a drastic and unpopular step (not that the Parsi Press is popular to begin with). Whatever its shortcomings a free Press is still one of the integral components of a democratic framework. By acclaiming the introduction of adult franchise, which WAPIZ incidentally opposed — with Mehta’s tacit and limited support — by banning the Press, Mehta would be taking a step in the reverse direction. He and his co-trustees have promised transparency. Prohibiting the Press would be in blatant negation of that idealistic concept.
WAPIZ’s efforts to dominate the Federation may be with the intention of making the all-India body a member of WAPIZ and then claiming WAPIZ to be the much desired but elusive world body initially proposed at the first World Zoroastrian Congress held in Tehran in 1960.
They may also aspire to purge the Federation of liberal anjumans such as Delhi, Jamshedpur, Lucknow and others that involve non-Parsi spouses in the affairs of the anjuman, thus reducing the all-India body to a rump.
To add to Mehta and WAPIZ’s unease, Rustom Hormuzdiyar, who presided over the recent BPP trusteeship elections, has been appointed the chief executive officer of the Jam-e-Jamshed Weekly. Mehta and WAPIZ publicly questioned Hormuzdiyar’s integrity and Mehta was the only trustee of the then board to oppose his nomination. With rumors flying that the ownership or management of the Weekly has changed hands from the Dubash family to Adult Franchise for Progress (AFP) founder and noted jurist Berjis Desai (an allegation Desai denies), the paper whose credibility suffered during the trusteeship elections will now function as a viable critic of Mehta and WAPIZ.
If that isn’t enough to give Mehta sleepless nights the WAPIZ Page of January 9, 2009 has launched a frontal attack on Dadrawala over the issue of the charity commissioner (CC) order on allotment of 104 flats. Having taken on the CC, a publicly divided BPP board can only damage the august institution’s image further.
Questioning Dadrawala’s bona fides to augment community housing, the WAPIZ Page discredited the trust management expert claiming “the man is known for his empty, pompous words.”
Whether the WAPIZ attack had Mehta’s blessings or not is uncertain. But with the new board still to complete 100 days in office, its energies and priorities appear to be headed in diverse directions.
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