Misplaced zeal

Though we have produced a field marshal, admirals, two chiefs of the Indian Air Force, a vice chief of the Indian Army and several very senior officers in the three services, as well as one of the first two directors general of the Border Security Force, we are not a community of foot soldiers.

But if we look at our baugs, one would think otherwise. There is "inter-necine warfare” and extreme bad blood there. We have lost our warmth and camaraderie toward each other. Some megalomaniacs think that instead of being merely local sentinels they are the owners of the baugs, and act accordingly. They know their strength for at election times they manage the vote banks for those seeking election/reelection as trustees.

We do not want sheepishness in our community with many "yes men” but our salvation lies in our camaraderie and ethical values. Our core being should be strong, which it is not. We can survive by maintaining the core of Zoroastrian ethics and by keeping our social fabric intact, not in tatters. Dissent is far from dignified and it sank to its deepest depths at the Bombay Parsi Punchayet’s first election under universal adult franchise held in October 2008. Never before have we seen such stark mendacity in public on both sides of the fence.

It is never too late to mend matters. Stop the diatribes in the Jam-e-Jamshed and in The Free Press Journal’s WAPIZ Page. Let us not feed the public vultures who seem to relish Parsi carrion. We must stop caricaturing ourselves and end the war games so that we can usher in peace. Dissent there should be, but minus venom and vulgarity.

Our prayers strongly suggest concord and dispelling discord, but we do not seem to be imbibing that mandate at all. Perhaps we have moved away from our scientific, rational and universal religion and sought the advice of charlatans and Parsi politicians who are different from other Indian politicians in only one respect — eschewing the use of guns. In all other respects we are their mirror image.

B. T. DASTUR