Politics and Policy
The gift of the mazdoor
The return of a Diwali gift by Bombay Parsi Punchayet trustee Yazdi Desai sparks off an angry exchange with the Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet’s (BPP) financial crunch has strained relations between the apex Bombay community trust and the workers’ union. Delays in payment of salaries, leave travel allowance, bonus, allegedly not paying minimum wages nor making temporary workers permanent even though they have completed 240 days of service resulted in a heated exchange between the general secretary of the Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha (MMS) and BPP trustee Yazdi Desai in particular.
The conflagration resulted in Desai returning a Diwali gift made by the Union a month earlier. In a note to the general secretary Dhunji Naterwalla, Desai wrote on the Union greeting sheet "Dhunji, I am unable to accept your Diwali greetings and your gift because of your rude, abusive, disrespectful, blackmailing behavior and your acting against the interest of the BPP. Returning both herewith, Yazdi.”
Naterwalla termed the return of the gift "an insult to the president and the Union, not me personally. No gift is sent on a personal basis. It is from the Union. After a month he is sending the gift back. This is not the way to run the administration,” he told Parsiana over the phone on December 5, 2014.
The infuriated general secretary sent a stinging missive dated November 22, 2014 to Desai noting: "This is the first time in the history of the Sabha that we are addressing a letter to any person condemning him for ungentlemanly conduct and unfortunately it has to be you who have succeeded in creating this inglorious record. Never have we come across any person (who has) unabashedly committed so brazen and disgraceful an act as you have. Parsis have always (come) across as gentlemanly and graceful… (people). Everyone swears blindly to their honesty and gentlemanly conduct. But you… have utterly tarnished this reputation in the eyes of all.
"You are the first person who has tried to be ruthlessly and abusively antagonistic (to) the undersigned and made false and baseless allegations against me. We condemn your aforesaid act vehemently... After functioning in the Punchayet for nearly a decade, never has anyone found the undersigned to be a person remotely akin to what you have unabashedly described. We have always nurtured a cordial relation with everyone we have met in the course of our day-to-day working and we are proud to say that we have succeeded in befriending a lot of persons throughout, including many of the trustees of the Punchayet too. This friendship has, over a period of time, evolved to such an extent that even after (the) cessation of union and management relations, these persons have continued to remain in (touch) with us.
"Your act of returning a gift after almost a month has elapsed and that too after expressing thanks, says more than what we could have transcribed here.
"As far as your allegation that the undersigned has been acting against the interest of the Punchayet is concerned, it would suffice to state herein that you are (unable) to even gauge the enormity of our contribution to the Punchayet and its employees.
"Consequently we hereby (disregard) all your allegations without an iota of hesitation and do hereby (add) a word of caution that henceforth we shall not entertain any correspondence including any reply to this letter… We shall not hesitate to take appropriate steps within the realms of law against you to make you aware of your wrongdoings.”
The MMS headed by Chandbibi Zaidi has been representing around 240 BPP employees over the last 15 years and has signed three settlement agreements. Another one is due in January. Naterwalla was not keen his letter be published stating it was a "private” letter and that he didn’t want to strain relations with the BPP prior to settlement of the new agreement. Parsiana has considerably edited the letter both stylistically and to tone down the allegation.
In a phone conversation with Parsiana on December 6, 2014, Desai termed the letter "quite libellous” and partly attributed this strained relationship to the "financial difficulties the BPP currently faces.” The BPP’s main source of income is derived from the transfer of flats in the various colonies. Due to the trustees’ internecine feud the Charity Commissioner had over a year ago issued a "status quo” order on all BPP properties. Till then relations with the Union had been "quite cordial,” says Desai. He subsequently had to inform the Union that salaries would have to be "rescheduled” to which Naterwalla asked him to send a letter to that effect which Desai did.
Relations were further strained when Desai who says he was "taking a keen interest in the finances of the BPP” wanted to save money on the cost of cutting grass at the various colonies. The BPP spends around five to six lakhs a year employing temporary hands to do the job, explained Desai. Noting that there were 21 malis (gardeners) at Doongerwadi, Desai inquired from the Doongerwadi estate manager Jimmy Poonavala if some malis could be spared for the job. They are paid an extra allowance for doing/supervising the job. Desai said the gardeners appeared agreeable but requested him "to talk to Dhunji” regarding the request.
(In response to a complaint from Bahadur Avari, core committee member of S. B. Bharucha Baug in Andheri, that cutting of grass needed urgent attention, Desai informed him that the team will reach Bharucha Baug by November 7. Apparently Desai’s wife Anahita also called Avari to explain the situation and had been monitoring the grass cutting activity at different baugs. This prompted BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta to circulate an email: "There is no need for trustees’ wives to interfere in BPP affairs.”)
When Desai spoke to Naterwalla he said he found him "rather rude and offensive.” He alleged that Desai was running the BPP like his household. He also told Desai that the BPP should pay the salaries on time. "I was quite disturbed… very cut up,” said Desai. He then returned the Diwali gift. In retrospect, he felt the gesture was "maybe not polite.”
Desai noted that the BPP receives interest from fixed deposits towards the end of the year. Due to the financial constraints the BPP is "not making (new) fixed deposits” as their cash flow would be affected.
Mehta says the BPP and the Union have striven to maintain a cordial relationship and that he has found Naterwalla to be courteous and cooperative.
Former BPP chief executive officer Behram Dastur states he found Naterwalla and Zaidi "fair” in their dealings.
The conflagration resulted in Desai returning a Diwali gift made by the Union a month earlier. In a note to the general secretary Dhunji Naterwalla, Desai wrote on the Union greeting sheet "Dhunji, I am unable to accept your Diwali greetings and your gift because of your rude, abusive, disrespectful, blackmailing behavior and your acting against the interest of the BPP. Returning both herewith, Yazdi.”
Naterwalla termed the return of the gift "an insult to the president and the Union, not me personally. No gift is sent on a personal basis. It is from the Union. After a month he is sending the gift back. This is not the way to run the administration,” he told Parsiana over the phone on December 5, 2014.
The infuriated general secretary sent a stinging missive dated November 22, 2014 to Desai noting: "This is the first time in the history of the Sabha that we are addressing a letter to any person condemning him for ungentlemanly conduct and unfortunately it has to be you who have succeeded in creating this inglorious record. Never have we come across any person (who has) unabashedly committed so brazen and disgraceful an act as you have. Parsis have always (come) across as gentlemanly and graceful… (people). Everyone swears blindly to their honesty and gentlemanly conduct. But you… have utterly tarnished this reputation in the eyes of all.
"You are the first person who has tried to be ruthlessly and abusively antagonistic (to) the undersigned and made false and baseless allegations against me. We condemn your aforesaid act vehemently... After functioning in the Punchayet for nearly a decade, never has anyone found the undersigned to be a person remotely akin to what you have unabashedly described. We have always nurtured a cordial relation with everyone we have met in the course of our day-to-day working and we are proud to say that we have succeeded in befriending a lot of persons throughout, including many of the trustees of the Punchayet too. This friendship has, over a period of time, evolved to such an extent that even after (the) cessation of union and management relations, these persons have continued to remain in (touch) with us.
"Your act of returning a gift after almost a month has elapsed and that too after expressing thanks, says more than what we could have transcribed here.
"As far as your allegation that the undersigned has been acting against the interest of the Punchayet is concerned, it would suffice to state herein that you are (unable) to even gauge the enormity of our contribution to the Punchayet and its employees.
"Consequently we hereby (disregard) all your allegations without an iota of hesitation and do hereby (add) a word of caution that henceforth we shall not entertain any correspondence including any reply to this letter… We shall not hesitate to take appropriate steps within the realms of law against you to make you aware of your wrongdoings.”
The MMS headed by Chandbibi Zaidi has been representing around 240 BPP employees over the last 15 years and has signed three settlement agreements. Another one is due in January. Naterwalla was not keen his letter be published stating it was a "private” letter and that he didn’t want to strain relations with the BPP prior to settlement of the new agreement. Parsiana has considerably edited the letter both stylistically and to tone down the allegation.
In a phone conversation with Parsiana on December 6, 2014, Desai termed the letter "quite libellous” and partly attributed this strained relationship to the "financial difficulties the BPP currently faces.” The BPP’s main source of income is derived from the transfer of flats in the various colonies. Due to the trustees’ internecine feud the Charity Commissioner had over a year ago issued a "status quo” order on all BPP properties. Till then relations with the Union had been "quite cordial,” says Desai. He subsequently had to inform the Union that salaries would have to be "rescheduled” to which Naterwalla asked him to send a letter to that effect which Desai did.
Relations were further strained when Desai who says he was "taking a keen interest in the finances of the BPP” wanted to save money on the cost of cutting grass at the various colonies. The BPP spends around five to six lakhs a year employing temporary hands to do the job, explained Desai. Noting that there were 21 malis (gardeners) at Doongerwadi, Desai inquired from the Doongerwadi estate manager Jimmy Poonavala if some malis could be spared for the job. They are paid an extra allowance for doing/supervising the job. Desai said the gardeners appeared agreeable but requested him "to talk to Dhunji” regarding the request.
(In response to a complaint from Bahadur Avari, core committee member of S. B. Bharucha Baug in Andheri, that cutting of grass needed urgent attention, Desai informed him that the team will reach Bharucha Baug by November 7. Apparently Desai’s wife Anahita also called Avari to explain the situation and had been monitoring the grass cutting activity at different baugs. This prompted BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta to circulate an email: "There is no need for trustees’ wives to interfere in BPP affairs.”)
When Desai spoke to Naterwalla he said he found him "rather rude and offensive.” He alleged that Desai was running the BPP like his household. He also told Desai that the BPP should pay the salaries on time. "I was quite disturbed… very cut up,” said Desai. He then returned the Diwali gift. In retrospect, he felt the gesture was "maybe not polite.”
Desai noted that the BPP receives interest from fixed deposits towards the end of the year. Due to the financial constraints the BPP is "not making (new) fixed deposits” as their cash flow would be affected.
Mehta says the BPP and the Union have striven to maintain a cordial relationship and that he has found Naterwalla to be courteous and cooperative.
Former BPP chief executive officer Behram Dastur states he found Naterwalla and Zaidi "fair” in their dealings.
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