Constant disagreements

To the best of my management knowledge when a body of members is elected, all the members of the board have to fall in line with the majority decision, whatever it may be. It is in very bad taste to wash dirty linen in public by proclaiming dissenting views to the general public. This does not help the community; in fact it’s a disservice to it when one disgruntled person constantly puts spokes in the wheel of the decision making board by his constant veto.

In such a scenario what standing would a single dissenter enjoy when six out of seven trustees are in favor? This should make him very uncomfortable and it would be even more hurtful to the people who voted for him to find him virtually using only his negative vote! To me it looks like this is what Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustee Noshir Dadrawala has come to represent.

Talking about the suitable men who did not get elected is an old story. One knows that often the wrong people are elected at the expense of good and strong workers. But then this is the bane of all democracies throughout the world. What happened in an advanced nation like America? How did George W. Bush get elected to two terms as President when he is the reason for the sorry state America finds itself in today?

Personally, I find Dadrawala’s constant disagreements with the BPP offensive. If he can’t change the views of the others, it would be better for him to remain silent instead of constantly blocking any work the board wishes to undertake. Naturally, a stage has come when he feels he has been virtually sidelined in every policy matter as there is lack of trust between him and the others. So he takes the easy way out by writing about all that happens at the board to the Jam-e-Jamshed and other periodicals and creates a big hangama (drama), to the extent of involving the media and Charity Commissioner directly or indirectly. Why?

A learned scholar like Dadrawala should realize that one against all never works. He has been given an opportunity to help solve the innumerable problems the community is facing and should take a more positive, constructive approach than the one he has chosen so far.

RODA D. HAKIM

Baroda

vadhakim@yahoo.com

The editors reply

The right to dissent is an integral and crucial component of any democracy. If any elected official feels a wrong is being done, he or she is duty bound to oppose the policy. Zoroastrianism asks its followers to fight the good battle, not to condone any evil. Whether Dadrawala is right or wrong is for the community at large to decide. But he cannot shirk his elected responsibilities if he believes what is being done is an injustice and one that will damage the interests of the community at large.