Come, grab our family silver

The internecine warfare between the two factions of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustees is beginning to have serious consequences for the community. The mainstream Press laps up any story relating to our Towers of Silence. Though few non-Parsis know that our corpses are no longer eaten by vultures but dehydrated by powerful solar panels, this is nevertheless titillating stuff. Recently, the majority World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ)-led faction in the BPP screamed blue murder over red soil being dumped at Doongerwadi. The other faction, supported by the well intentioned Dr Homi Dhalla, responded that the soil had been procured free of cost. All sorts of exotic allegations and counter allegations were printed in the national newspapers.
A few years ago, when the feisty crusader Dhun Baria was accused of circulating in the media, a stomach curdling video of the dakhma insides, the same trustees castigated Baria and her supporters for focusing the attention of non-Parsis on our precious lands. You are drawing the evil eyes of property sharks and shysters on our most valuable Doongerwadi asset, they fumed. Sauce for the goose (or the vulture) is not, we suppose, sauce for the gander.
Not so long ago, when these trustees were a united lot, their zeal for preserving and protecting Parsi properties had reached great heights. Presently, however, they are like viciously animus dripping warriors, who want to finish off each other. They abuse in correspondence, they fight in courts — both civil and criminal, they agitate before the Charity Commissioner and they do not hesitate in washing dirty linen (or soil) in public. And these are supposed to be times of peace. Can you imagine what will happen, come the last quarter of this calendar year, when the drums will beat deafeningly again for the coming elections to fill five vacancies in 2015? Hopefully, sanity will return when the board is reconstituted. In the meanwhile, what is alarming is the spotlight on Doongerwadi.
Many a developer and builder has hungrily eyed the 55 acres of forest land in the heart of the city. Some have tried to encroach and usurp, but have been beaten back. This state has seen more than its fair share of land scams involving a nexus between politicians, bureaucrats and builders. The great goodwill we enjoyed during yesteryears, and which insulated us from many a grab, is fast dissipating. When our guardians themselves fight in such public glare, you are risking your precious and priceless community assets. As they say: when the salt has lost its savor, wherewith can it be salted?
In the 2008 general elections, this same Alliance had thrashed the panel of eminent Parsis who were novices in the electoral game. In our quieter moments, we thank the Lord for the defeat of these gentle souls who had zero experience in street-fighting. Not even the bravest among them would have survived this toxic atmosphere.
The cocktail of dramatically declining demographics, great indifference of thinking Parsis and public display of war mongering is deadly. At risk are our immovable properties running into billions. We are almost openly extending an invite to the property sharks. A single Parsi adventurer (for want of a better expression) becoming a trustee and colluding with the usurpers will spell doom for the community heritage.
Our only hope is that a more sensible lot will be voted in next year. As that shrewd observer of men, money and matrimony, Jane Austen, asked in Pride and Prejudice: "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors?”

Berjis M. Desai, managing partner of J. Sagar Associates, advocates and solicitors, is a writer and community activist.