BPP’s management lacuna

No longer able to cope with the stress resulting from fractured relations among trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), Cawas Panthanki, senior executive and acting chief executive officer put in his papers on November 19, 2014. Following the illness and death of the BPP’s former chief executive officer Mehli Colah, the apex Bombay trust has been without an administrative head. Another senior executive Pheroze Patel has been suspended for over six months. With Panthaki’s resignation the BPP’s functioning will be severely impaired. When asked by Parsiana on December 1, 2014 whether he would reconsider his decision to resign, he replied, "Absolutely not.” To further queries his response was "No comment.” Currently serving his notice period of three months, Panthaki told Jam-e-Jamshed Weekly of November 23, 2014, "I have nothing, I repeat nothing, against any individual trustee. But their factionalism is unbearable. The two camps are like east and west and they daily drag me in opposite directions. How can anyone work like this? It is sheer mental torture. They don’t talk to each other and use me to convey messages to each other. I am pulled in different directions all the time.”

Cawas Panthaki: dragged in opposite directions

Having worked with the BPP for over a decade Panthaki confesses that the decision to quit was a painful one. The acrimony among the trustees during the past three years has taken a toll on his health. "My nature has changed because of all the stress. I was never an angry man, but now I am angry all the time. I am sure this is spoiling my health.”
Panthaki blames both sides for the deterioration of the apex body. "Their one-upmanship and cussed adamancy is ruining the institution. They are not thinking reasonably but using their personal agendas and viewpoints to ruin the institution. One is not given even basic administrative powers to function. The staff is taking full advantage of the factionalism and there is no discipline,” he bemoans.
Parsi Times of November 22, 2014 has laid the blame squarely at chairman Dinshaw Mehta’s door, claiming that there was an attempt to force Panthaki to sign a letter against his will as it was in contravention of the board’s resolution. Panthaki refused to be bullied and submitted his four-line resignation letter instead.
All the trustees (Mehta included) have urged him to reconsider his decision, but "even God will not be able to change my mind. My heart is broken and cannot be mended. It hurts me to see an institution like the BPP in the state that it is,” he told Jamé.