BPP: Nothing to show

After giving the matter a lot of thought, I write this as a detached observer with no axe to grind. I feel that after one year in office the full board of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) has nothing to show to its credit except more litigation and expending of trust funds. I admit that the only saving grace is that the BPP has had a "resounding victory” against the Alert Zoroastrians Association (AZA) in two High Court cases — though one wonders who had the victory in the matter concerning the allotment of 104 flats.

For several years former BPP trustee Burjor Antia and I (in my capacity as the former chief executive officer) had been telling the erstwhile board that we must drastically reduce litigation. As a microscopic community we should have minimal litigation, and that too only when some madcaps thrust it on the community.

It is a great shame that the dignified logo of the BPP has been changed for a frivolous reason: Khojeste Mistree is believed to have said that the fire logo is consuming the BPP! What is "consuming” the BPP is its internal bickering (for the last 40 years), and not the logo. The BPP is a house divided against itself, and its meetings are least productive, at times even counter-productive.

In Zoroastrian symbolism, fire is the most exalted symbol and is a glorified inspiration to Zoroastrians worldwide. It is a shame that the apex body of the community has been swayed by Mistree in this most undignified manner. The other trustees must share the blame as well, for the disrespect shown to the noble symbol designed by India’s only Zoroastrian designer of stamps, the noted artist Jamshed P. Irani.

The most important things the apex body needs to do is drastically reduce litigation; accelerate allotment of flats in a transparent manner; and give deep thought to the dwindling numbers of priests and of our population. A few years back I had mentioned at one of the meetings of the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India that our religious institutions were in great danger owing to the dwindling number of priests.

We must also seriously think about who will be the pallbearers at Doonger­wadi once the source of khandias (from south and central Gujarat) dries up. When I had brought the matter up at the said Federation meeting, Mistree twisted my argument to state that Dinshaw Tamboly and I were interested in scrapping the system of dakhmenashini! Also, Mistree must stop frittering away the BPP’s resources by following his pet fad of re-introducing vultures at Doongerwadi when the Bombay Natural History Society has voiced its view five years back that this is impracticable.

There will be no way of resolving the issue of interfaith marriages at the BPP level as long as the two World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis trustees have the last laugh.

BEHRAM T. DASTUR