WAPIZ defeated itself

The Wayward, Aparthedical, Prevaricating, Insidious Zeroes of WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis) have been routed at the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trusteeship elections and sanity has returned to the community. If I had the felicity of words and style of Charles Dickens or P. G. Wodehouse I would have called them "extemporaneous prevaricators,” but being neither of the above I will merely say that they are all liars. The WAPIZ zeroes have defeated themselves with their own lies. Khojeste Mistree has failed to impress people with his sermons and his brand of childish humor a la pendo (a round sweetmeat, signifying a stout person) and thengo (thumbing one’s nose at someone).

It was downright naïve of their campaign managers to think that they could fool the entire community with lies and duplicity. The first major falsehood came vide the letter purportedly written by Dr Mehroo Bengalee, a WAPIZ trustee. Bengalee had made it very clear that she would not support the candidature of Anahita Desai, CEO (chief executive officer) of WAPIZ since Desai’s husband Yazdi was a sitting trustee of the BPP.

Then there was the Doongerwadi imbroglio. One week we read that the entire Doongerwadi staff supported Desai. The very next week came a clarification from the Doongerwadi staff that they did not support her!

Finally came WAPIZ’s sudden discovery that there were 74 vacant flats with the BPP, a fact which was allegedly withheld by BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta from the two WAPIZ trustees and their supporter on the BPP board. Their lies were exposed when a letter of clarification signed by Mehta, Arnavaz Mistry and Armaity Tirandaz was read out stating that these details had been submitted to the Bombay High Court way back in 2009, hence there was no way the three trustees could have been ignorant about the vacant flats. If they were unaware of this, then su aiy tan trusteeo kanda kapta tha (were these three trustees sitting idle)?

The paid advertisements in The Free Press Journal’s WAPIZ Page went for overkill, demolishing all chances of Desai getting a few more votes which might have narrowed down the margin of her defeat. The accusations and write-ups turned hateful and vicious, with WAPIZ scribes further eroding all chances of victory for their candidate which were anyway slim.

The fiasco at Rustom Baug was the final nail in the WAPIZ coffin. Since most people already know what transpired there I won’t go into the sordid details. Had it not been for diplomatic Mehta and cool candidate Muncherji Cama the matter would have taken an ugly turn and the community’s image would have taken a bashing in the cosmopolitan Press. A joint declaration was made by both factions withdrawing the allegations against each other and everything seemed hunky dory the next day. A week later WAPIZ was back to its old tricks, spitting venom at one and all for their defeat. Bad losers!

Compare the WAPIZ way of managing their campaign with that of the independent candidate. Cama was cool, calm, collected. No lies, no vague promises. No hyperbolic claims. Always ready with facts and figures. A sethia to the core, Cama fought on his own strength and not on his opponent’s weaknesses. Such are the people who should grace the august boardroom of the BPP.

Last but most important is the fact that boiled, baked, mashed, grilled or fried; whole, chopped, sliced, diced, wedges, wafers or salli, Parsis simply love their potatoes!

DARA KHODAIJI

dara_mk@hotmail.com