The Federation in isolation - I

The executive council meeting of the Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India held at Valsad on March 12 and 13 was a subdued affair following the setback suffered by the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis) and their supporters in the “renegade” priests ban case before a divisional bench of the Bombay High Court (BHC) on March 11, 2011.
While the Valsad Parsi Anjuman (VPA) made suitable arrangements for the attending delegates, all the major anjumans save those of Bombay and Secunderabad-Hyderabad were absent. The delegate from Madras attended in her capacity as co-opted member from the south zone. Though the meet was held in the state of Gujarat the major anjumans in the state namely Ahmedabad, Baroda, Bharuch and Surat all refrained from attending.
No progress has been made on the 10th World Zoroastrian Congress to be held in Bombay in December 2013, BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta informed the delegates gathered at VPA’s spacious Bejan Baug complex. Due to the various ongoing litigations the BPP is involved with, Mehta foresaw no plans being drawn up for the next couple of weeks as the BPP energies would be directed to filing an appeal against the BHC decision.
Similarly Mehta in his capacity as chairman of the FPZAI had to repeatedly apologize to the delegates for not replying to their letters due to the BPP’s other preoccupations. When one delegate narrated the problems the anjuman faced Mehta advised him to write to the Federation only to be informed that a letter had already been sent earlier.
ful outbursts feature in many public meets was kept in check by Mehta except on one occasion when he chose to attack the Udvada high priest Dastur Khurshed Dastoor. Pervez Irani of the Iranian Zoroastrian Anjuman questioned his right to do so and the slanging match continued for a few minutes before Khambatta moved on to other topics.
Several delegates praised the VPA for its stand in barring entry in its adarian to Parsi Zoroastrian women married to non-Parsis. Mehta informed the delegates that at a function the previous night in Bombay, “a high priest” had told him that former Valsad resident Goolrookh Gupta who was challenging the ban in court.
When Daman-Vapi representative Homai Engineer innocently suggested that a form asking anjumans to join a federation of trusts to oppose certain clauses in the new Direct Tax Bill be printed in Parsiana, Mehta bellowed, “we want nothing to do with Parsiana.”
Mehta went on to note “the Federation is strongly traditional in its views.” Without orthodoxy “we would lose our identity as a religion... The courts do not understand the community’s sentiment,” Mehta said referring to the recent judgment in the priests’ case. “It’s a dark day for our community with the courts interfering in our traditions... After receiving the written order the (BPP) board will take a final call” on whether to appeal or not.
Khojeste Mistree: “Mobeds do not want to leave big cities… They have no social life. They have to live alone without their families.” He referred to a plan being put together by the BPP, WAPIZ and BPP trustee Jimmy Mistry’s Parsee Resource Group (PRG) which would work on this problem. But “as of now we don’t have priests willing to go... Two weeks ago there was a death in Sholapur… We rushed a priest from here by train… and the paidust was done. Sometimes in an emergency we can help. For every 12 priests dying a new one comes in.” Mistree did not state the source for his data or who or when or where or how the survey was conducted.