Tirandaz triumphs

Until the Dadar results came in Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trusteeship candidates Maneck Engineer and Armaity Tirandaz were neck and neck in the voter tally. The count from Bharucha Baug, Cusrow Baug and Khareghat Colony gave the widow of the late sitting trustee Rustom a lead of around 100 votes out of 4,933 cast on the first three days of polling in April. But the 2,389 votes cast in Dadar saw the eastern suburban resident move 300 additional votes ahead. Rustom Baug with a total of 2,534 votes pushed the doughty social worker to win the keenly contested, often messy election by 648 votes. Engineer however led in the donor votes list in all the five voting venues securing 330 out of the 548 cast with Tirandaz scoring 193.

Overall Engineer garned 4,613 votes to Tirandaz’s 5,263. Nine thousand eight hundred and fifty six people voted but as a donor vote is counted as two, the total votes numbered 10,404 of which 104 were invalid, stated Cawas Panthaky, BPP senior executive, welfare. There are around 33,000 Parsis/Iranis registered to vote but the actual number of voters may be closer to 27,000 allowing for deaths not updated on the rolls. In the October 2008 elections for the seven trustee seats Engineer had received 4,224 votes out of 13,564 cast.

By around 10 p.m. on April 20, even before the final tally was officially announced, jubilant Tirandaz supporters hailed the anticipated verdict with loud cheers, shouts and a song or two: "Who is the best candidate of all? Armaity no doubt at all.” "Who do we want in the BPP? Rustom’s wife Armaity” and "Why do we want Armaity? For our kom ni unity.”

"People said a vote for Armaity is a vote for Dinshaw Mehta,” a joyous BPP chairman told a well-wisher over the phone. "The community wants Dinshaw Mehta.”

"Jénu namak khadhu (those who have feasted on the candidates’ largesse)” have repaid their debt, said candidate Ervad Adi Gowadia who received 89 votes. He was referring to the free meals handed out and served at election rallies. "They are not ungrateful.” He hoped the winner would not work only for the voters residing in the geographical areas that supported her but for the entire community. Tehmtan Dumasia polled 331 votes.

Mehta’s brother Noshir who was present at the counting venue noted that people dismissed Dinshaw "as a Foras Road (situated in Bombay’s seamy red light district) dada (goon).” But the others were "bigger dadas,” he countered. Mehta was not in that league. And even if he was a Foras Road dada, "kamal kichar ma ugéch (the lotus flower grows in the muck).”

The counting

The election officials, the BPP staff, two trustees and the candidates gathered at the Khareghat Colony hall at 8.30 a.m. on Monday and by 9.10 a.m. the election president Commodore Aspi Marker asked that "only the candidates and two representatives should be present.” As the day progressed and Tirandaz surged ahead, the number of volunteers from Tirandaz’s side swelled to seven.

The day before at the Rustom Baug voters’ venue, Marker, election scrutini­zers Ratan Lalkaka and Rustom Jasoo­money as well as the candidates and their representatives held a meeting after the polling to discuss the next day’s procedures. As the meeting ended Engineer supporters and Alert Zoroastrians Association (AZA) leader Kersi Rande­ria said the ban on photography reportedly insisted on by Mehta should extend to Parsiana. Marker countered the statement stating he has consented to Parsana’s presence during the balloting process to report and photograph (Parsiana had written for permission prior to the holding of the election and Marker had consented).

But the next morning Mehta sprung a surprise stating that once the counting of ballots started Parsiana would be barred from taking photographs.

Jubilant supporters at Khareghat Colony

After requesting that a few shots be permitted to show the counting process for readers, Mehta relented and soon thereafter called for a halt. This is the first time Parsiana has been banned from photographing any of the electoral processes.

The sealed steel ballot boxes were brought from the strongroom on the ground floor of the building and unsealed in the presence of the gathering. The ballot papers were then removed from the envelopes by the BPP staff, serial numbers were written in red ink on both the envelopes and ballots which were made into piles of 100. Once this was over, Lalkaka and Jasoomoney, and at times Marker, read out the number the voter had put a cross next to (one for Gowadia, two for Tirandaz, three for Engineer and four for Dumasia), showed the ballot paper to the candidates’ representatives who were seated across and put them into boxes labeled one, two, three, four and five (for invalid votes).

Results of each center were announced throughout the day with the final total being stated by Marker at around 11 p.m. Before then tempers flared one or twice with Mehta alleging that Engineer representative and AZA leader Zeree Jehangirji had moved a bundle of 100 votes (the BPP staff by mistake had placed the bundle incorrectly). A second argument occurred between Randeria and Marker over some technicality.

Barring these few episodes, the counting, as indeed the entire election process had passed off smoothly, a sentiment echoed by BPP trustee Khojeste Mistree who on behalf of his co-trustees told the small gathering present at the counting venue at around 11.10 p.m. that the election officials and the BPP staff had done "a splendid job… (Armaity Tirandaz) has been legally, officially and democratically elected by the community.”

(In between the counting of votes Mehta, Randeria, AZA’s Percy Patel and others rushed to the Bombay High Court for a scheduled hearing before the divisional bench of Justices P. B. Majmudar and R. M. Sawant on the allocation of 104 flats and the sale of ownership flats at Panthaky Baug. But as their lordships were not familiar with all the details of the case the matter was referred back to the bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Dr Dhananjaya Chandrachud on April 28, 2009.)

Paper wars

On the Saturday and Sunday prior to the vote counting the WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis) Page and the Jam-e-Jamshed Weekly rooted for their candidates while attacking their opponents or their supporters.

The WAPIZ Page in the Free Press Journal of (April 18, 2009) claimed, "Maneck Engineer’s ‘Balancing’ Act is aimed at derailing the Punchayet, not stabilizing it.” Engineer supporters had claimed his presence on the board would lend support to beleaguered BPP trustees Arnavaz Mistry and Noshir Dadra­wala, of whom the latter has been at the receiving end of much of WAPIZ and Mehta’s ire.

"We hope that the community is intelligent enough to realize that the ‘Balance’ theory is in reality a programme for disruption and disharmony and is just an election gimmick; the real intention is to create further disharmony in the board as he did in his previous term of office,” stated WAPIZ.

The Page also carried an attack on Dadrawala by the wives of four BPP trustees, Pansy Dinshaw Mehta, Firoza Khojeste Mistree, Del­na Jimmy Mistry and Anahita Yazdi Desai who stated "Dadrawala has wrongly and mischievously claimed that the wives of some of the sitting trustees have sat in on meetings called to ‘interview housing applicants.’

"We categorically state that this is an absolute lie and has been said with the intent of maligning our reputations and with the intent to spreading misinformation before the BPP elections.”

In another piece on the WAPIZ Page penned by Mistree and Yazdi Desai, both WAPIZ founder members and BPP trustees, the duo claimed, "The practice of giving the agenda on the day of the meeting has been followed by the previous board of trustees’ and has been in practice for over five years. [Former BPP CEO (chief executive officer) Beh­ram Dastur refutes the allegation: "Not at all. The agenda was definitely given by the previous Friday.” The trustees’ meetings are held on Tuesdays. Dastur says this practice continued till his resignation on January 1, 2008 — editors.] If Mr Dadrawala or for that matter any other trustee needs to think about any item before he takes a decision, then the matter can always be held in abeyance until the following week.”

Dadrawala had claimed the agenda was given to him an hour after the meeting was scheduled to start. He further alleged that four trustees, Mehta, Jimmy Mistry, Mistree and Desai came late to the meetings because they are discussing matters in the cabin of the BPP CEO Mehli Colah prior to the board meeting.

WAPIZ alleged that Dadrawala "seldom” comes to the meetings on time and that "there is no crime (if) any trustee or trustees together or singly go into the CEO’s office to consult with the CEO on any matters concerning the workings of the BPP.”

Regarding the housing and Doonger­wadi advisory committees being disbanded, Mistree and Desai note, "Unlike the past when a single trustee at a time was voted in at each election, this time because of adult franchise an entirely new board has been voted in. Surely, they have the right to create new committees which they can work with, effectively? Clearly this is part of the democratic right of newly elected trustees to appoint those whom they feel will contribute more robustly to the workings of the Punchayet. The truth is that the previous Doongerwadi committee had not met for over two years and was largely an ineffective body with no powers, whatsoever.”

Phiroze Amroliwalla who had unsuccessfully contested the October 2008 trusteeship elections and then switched sides from the AZA group to Mehta stated his reasons for doing so in the WAPIZ Page, ironically in a letter addressed to the Editor of the Jam-e-Jamshed. "In my interaction and experience coupled with his own actions and reactions, I found Mr Engineer took his responsibility as trustee very lightly…

"The last straw which made me come out in support of Mr Dinshaw Mehta, much before the elections, was when the AZA group filed an application behind my back (I was an intervener with Mr Kersi Randeria) before the Charity Commissioner (CC) in the proceedings under sec 41/D, withdrawing charges against five Trustees including Mr Engineer who was the AFP (Adult Franchise for Progress) candidate (a creation supported by AZA), and continued prosecution solely against Mr Dinshaw Mehta. The CC rightly dismissed this interim application…”

(AZA’s Jehangirji states that once Amroliwalla’s role as an intervener was permitted by the CC the question of consulting him on the application did not arise as he was not one of the two original applicants. Neither is Amroli­walla a member of the AZA nor has he claimed to be an AZA activist, noted Jehangirji.)

"Given this background, do you think it would be justified for me to support his candidature, when he had been rejected by the electorate, under the first adult franchise election, only a few months back? It was only logical therefore that in 2009, I support a more deserving candidate, Mrs Armaity Rustom Tirandaz, personally known to me for 35 years…

"Dinshaw certainly has the grit, determination, expertise and experience to lead the BPP and help change the face of our community for a better future. It is with this in mind that I supported and campaigned for Armaity in the hope that this apex body will function in harmony like a cricket team where the captain is required to win matches, and not like the Lok Sabha which we all know only witnesses mudslinging and political one-upmanship. It is about time that all critics of Dinshaw accept his victory and that of his team gracefully rather than pursue a vindictive approach till times immemorial.”

Clockwise from top left:Unsealing the ballot boxes; removing the ballots from the envelopes; indelible ink bottle; candidates and their representatives awaiting the counting of ballots; sorting ballots; scrutinizers Lalkaka and Jasoomoney reading out the ballot numbers

In an article in the Jam-e-Jamshed of April 19 headlined "A vote for Armaity Tirandaz is a vote for Dinshaw Mehta” the writers, Team Jame, stated, "If you want to further increase the power of Dinshaw Rusi Mehta, please do vote for Mrs Armaity Tirandaz. Even a child will realize that, under the present circumstances, this good lady has no alternative but to toe the line of Mehta…

"Mehta’s reasoning is quite clear. If he can get (the) late Rustom’s wife elected as a trustee then the beginning of dynastic rule in the Parsi community will ensure that other relatives of the present trustees also fill in future vacancies.”

Dadrawala also countered the WAPIZ Page attack on him responding that even if agenda papers were handed out on the day of the meeting since the past five years, as alleged by Mistree and Desai "it is a bad practice and should be changed. Application of mind to issues before the Board is a fundamental requirement…

"Meetings are scheduled at 4 p.m. but seldom start until 5 p.m. For a long time I used to go on time. However, looking to the trend, I have of late, stopped coming to the Board Room at 4 p.m… The CEO is an invitee at all Board meetings, so why do the trustees meet in his cabin at the time appointed for Board meetings, unless they have something to discuss with a view to exclude some co-trustees?...

"With regard to my reference to the role being played by the spouses of certain trustees. It is a fact on various occasions, wives of trustees have indeed participated in issues concerning the trust… I will cite just two examples:

"a) During the course of the negotiations between AZA and the Board of Trustees, a meeting was fixed by trustee Mr Jimmy Mistry in the office of his lawyer. Neither Arnavaz Mistry nor I were informed of this meeting. In fact Arnavaz was at the BPP with Mehta and Mistree when they abruptly left the BPP office for the meeting. When Arnavaz asked them where they were going she was told, ‘Jaraa kaam chhè (we have some work).’ I was not even informed. Much later, I discovered that in that meeting with Mr Jehangirji of AZA, Mrs Anahita Yazdi Desai was present along with Mistree and Mehta. Thus a trustee’s wife participated in negotiations for allotment of 104 flats whilst two elected trustees were not even informed.

"b) Similarly, when Nisha Batlivala (whose daughter allegedly died of starvation/illness) was summoned to the Board Room, neither Arnavaz Mistry nor I were informed. Arnavaz landed up at the BPP by chance much to the discomfort of those assembled there including Anahita Yazdi Desai and Delna Jimmy Mistry…

"While the new Board has been quick in dissolving the old (Doongerwadi and housing) committees why have they been dragging their feet for six months in reconstituting or forming new committees?”

Solicitor Berjis Desai who founded the Adult Franchise for Progress (AFP) and writes the weekly "Parsi Tari Arsi” column in The Bombay Samachar wrote on April 19, "Maneck Engineer has run a clean and uncontroversial election campaign. Neither he nor the Jamé nor any of his supporters have even remotely attacked Mrs Tirandaz. In contrast, the WAPIZ Page in the Free Press Journal has been openly abusive of Maneck Engineer and all who support his re-election bid…

"All the above facts demonstrate the rise of a new ruling class in Parsi politics. They are rowdy, aggressive, physical, banal, cantankerous, abusive, boorish, macho and odious…

"This new class and their behavior makes us classify them as: Parsis by accident. If you did not know they were Parsis, you would not think they were Parsis.

"Maneck Engineer may have risen from a poor household, but he has solid middle class values. He is good and honest and simple. No wonder his possible re-entry into the BPP instills such fear in the Parsis by accident.”