“Give and take”

It is a great shame (and I say this with a heavy heart) that the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) should spend without compunction Rs 50,00,000 of the trust’s money on litigation. Whose money is it? Some years ago Burjor Antia and others at the BPP advised the then board to reduce litigation drastically. This has not been done. Parsis should not fight Parsis unless it is utterly unavoidable. No wonder potential donors do not want to donate to an institution which is run like yet another "solicitor’s firm.”

The last great donation of Rs 7,00,00,000 was received by the BPP from a big trust run by Col Soli Pudumjee of Poona, where Antia is a co-trustee. The current BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta, then a BPP trustee, wanted to let go of that offer. Trustees Minoo Shroff and the late Jimmy Guzder were urged to ensure that the BPP availed of that largesse, which ultimately it did.

In your editorial ("Give and take,” Parsiana, February 7, 2011) you state that the Bomanjee Dinshaw Petit Parsee General Hospital received Rs 1,20,00,000 by way of donations. This is not surprising as it is run as a true charity. The BPP has become a faction ridden and fractured institution. Until it mends its own fences, no sane donor will offer it funds.

Also, some brake must be applied to the auction of flats. At a social gathering I heard that one family which already has three ownership flats was allotted a flat by the BPP. If this is incorrect, I expect the BPP to correct me.

The BPP has nothing meaningful to show [except the ZYNG (Zoroastrian Youth for the Next Generation) calendar, a new idea] for the last two years. Its prime objectives for the next five years should be to reduce litigation drastically; stop auction of flats; re-unite the fractured board (the chairman’s principal responsibility); attract donations; stop favoritism in the allotment of flats; and create a high degree of credibility about itself in the minds of the Parsi/Irani public by shunning dual standards.

B. T. DASTUR

BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta replies: As regards the alleged donation of Rs 7,00,00,000 received by the BPP from a big trust run by Col Soli Pudumjee of Poona where Burjor Antia is a co-trustee, it is to be stated that this donation was received from the M. K. Seth Charities and not from Pudumjee as alleged. Besides, it is factually incorrect that I wanted to let go of that offer and that trustees Minoo Shroff and the late Jamshed Guzder were urged to ensure that the BPP avail of that largesse. As a matter of fact, the donation was graciously accepted unanimously by the full board of trustees.

The letter writer obviously does not know the correct facts as Guzder was not even a trustee when the donation came to the BPP through Antia who was a trustee at that time.

Further, it may also be informed that as per the desire of the M. K. Seth Charities, their trustees wanted allotment rights to nominate Bhagaria priests for flats and were given rights of allotment of 40 flats in Godrej Baug and 10 flats in Bharucha Baug, Andheri. Thus the donation was linked to their being given allotment rights.

Regarding what was heard at some social gathering that one family which already has three ownership flats was allotted a flat by the BPP, the same is not true nor even plausible. The reader may kindly give complete details of the family’s name together with address, the addresses of the three ownership flats as well as the address of the flat allotted by the BPP so that we may initiate a probe to unearth the matter and set the record straight. To the best of our recollection no such flat has been knowingly allotted to any applicant having three ownership flats.

As far as the other points are concerned, it is very easy to criticize and advise from the outside like an armchair critic. It is only the wearer who knows where the shoe pinches.

The BPP has multifarious activities covering Parsis all over India in general and Bombay in particular which keep the board and the administration constantly on their toes and ever so busy reaching out to the community. If one really has a soft corner for the community and wishes to serve it, one should come into the ring of the board of trustees and feel the realities about how one has to function rather than remain outside the ring and air an opinion or a judgment without feeling the proper pulse of the situation.