Readers' Forum
“No scope for partnership”
For the entire five-year term that the present president and his team at the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat (APP) have held trusteeship and managing committee positions, not a single general body meeting has been convened and even the accounts have not been presented on a regular yearly basis.
On June 24, 2012 a special meeting was convened in which accounts for the previous four years, beginning 2008, were proposed to be passed. These so-called accounts were posted to members a few days before the meeting with the proviso that any queries or questions should be forwarded to the Panchayat at least eight days ahead of the meeting. Quite a few persons raised questions to which no reply was received till the day of the meeting; and during the meeting there was so much noise and turmoil (which was to be expected) that none of these matters were properly clarified and hence were virtually closed.
The notice of the meeting was formulated in such a manner that the proposal from the Ahmedabad Parsi Gymkhana (APG) would somehow be discarded ("No scope for partnership,” Parsiana, July 7, 2012). Having seen the notice and realized the intention behind it, the APG was quick to withdraw all offers given earlier. How the APP and its president could have sunk to such a level in trying to place before the general body a totally distorted version with the primary objective of not permitting another Parsi Zoroastrian institution to join them in creating a truly unique new complex is something which I find extremely difficult to believe. However, regretfully, that was why we were forced to withdraw our offer.
It is a shame that the Parsi community of Ahmedabad will have to suffer and the Panchayat will have lost a steady source of income to the tune of at least Rs 50 to 60 lakhs per year.
The extent to which games were played in maneuvering to discard the proposal deserves to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. At one point when the majority of APP trustees were ready to finalize and accept the APG’s proposal the president placed the matter before the entire committee. To his great surprise of the total 15 persons involved, 14 voted in favor of accepting the proposal. Despite this, the proposal had to be withdrawn merely because the president was the ill-advised dissenter.
The end result will be that a very large chunk of APG’s moneys will have to be invested in buying properties, funds which could land up with some outside entity.
On June 24, 2012 a special meeting was convened in which accounts for the previous four years, beginning 2008, were proposed to be passed. These so-called accounts were posted to members a few days before the meeting with the proviso that any queries or questions should be forwarded to the Panchayat at least eight days ahead of the meeting. Quite a few persons raised questions to which no reply was received till the day of the meeting; and during the meeting there was so much noise and turmoil (which was to be expected) that none of these matters were properly clarified and hence were virtually closed.
The notice of the meeting was formulated in such a manner that the proposal from the Ahmedabad Parsi Gymkhana (APG) would somehow be discarded ("No scope for partnership,” Parsiana, July 7, 2012). Having seen the notice and realized the intention behind it, the APG was quick to withdraw all offers given earlier. How the APP and its president could have sunk to such a level in trying to place before the general body a totally distorted version with the primary objective of not permitting another Parsi Zoroastrian institution to join them in creating a truly unique new complex is something which I find extremely difficult to believe. However, regretfully, that was why we were forced to withdraw our offer.
It is a shame that the Parsi community of Ahmedabad will have to suffer and the Panchayat will have lost a steady source of income to the tune of at least Rs 50 to 60 lakhs per year.
The extent to which games were played in maneuvering to discard the proposal deserves to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. At one point when the majority of APP trustees were ready to finalize and accept the APG’s proposal the president placed the matter before the entire committee. To his great surprise of the total 15 persons involved, 14 voted in favor of accepting the proposal. Despite this, the proposal had to be withdrawn merely because the president was the ill-advised dissenter.
The end result will be that a very large chunk of APG’s moneys will have to be invested in buying properties, funds which could land up with some outside entity.
JEHANGIR CAMA
President, Ahmedabad Parsi Gymkhana
cmd@camahotelsindia.com
President, Ahmedabad Parsi Gymkhana
cmd@camahotelsindia.com
◆ ◆ ◆
From the archive