Lessons in leadership

Plans are afoot for "a Zoroastrian trade fair at a future date, possibly in March 2016,” where Zoroastrian entrepreneurs could showcase their products and services. Adi Siganporia, chairperson of the Bombay chapter revealed this at the 12th annual general meeting (AGM) of the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce (WZCC) India Region at West End Hotel on September 19, 2015. He emphasized that his unit was in the process of strengthening the Business Advisory Council that would help entrepreneurs free of cost. Listing the main events of the last fiscal year, Siganporia pointed out that the key event was the annual global meet in Dubai in December 2014 (see "Integrity and opportunity,” Parsiana, March 7, 2015).
The Poona chapter of WZCC was represented by chairperson Maharukh Bharucha who reported that quarterly meets took place in that city, and that a joint program with the Poona Parsi Panchayat (PPP) was held in January 2015 which 400 people, including 25 youngsters, attended. In the coming year, Bharucha stated that the chapter would continue to build on alliances forged with bodies like the PPP and Zoroastrian Seva Mandal.

Cmde Aspi Marker (left) and Julio Ribeiro

Audience

In his address global WZCC president Minoo Shroff described the momentum in the organization he was instrumental in founding in 2000 as "we are walking, we will soon start jogging.” He bemoaned the apathy in the Zoroastrian community towards taking risks and stated that "most want secure jobs only.” Exhorting that one should be open to learning all the time, the past chairman of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet summed up that the WZCC in general and the Women’s Entrepreneurs (WE) in particular was doing a great job in furthering the objectives for which it was founded.
While delivering the keynote address on "Management Lessons from the Armed Forces,” Cmde Aspi Marker (Retd) recounted, "I guarantee you a 100% defeat” (in the 1971 Indo-Pak war), army chief Sam Manekshaw is reported to have told the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, when informed that an attack on the erstwhile East Pakistan was on the cards…It is my job to tell you the truth.” Manekshaw had then quoted the various practical difficulties that could come in the way of an imminent attack. Stating that strength of character was another sterling quality of the Field Marshal, he cited the example of the 93,000 prisoners of war in the Bangladesh campaign that his colleagues wanted to be handed over to the Mukti Vahini, the East Pakistani guerilla resistance movement. Manekshaw had refused and insisted that they be treated as prisoners of war, as dictated by the Geneva Convention.
Quoting the importance of sound professional knowledge in a leader, Marker gave an example from the 1965 conflict with India’s hostile neighbor and said that the reason why India was successful in storming Karachi port was because the Pakistani authorities did not have sound knowledge of the sea power of the submarines deployed from Okha port.
"Jointmanship” and team work between all three divisions of the armed forces were the key elements in successfully helping India’s neighbor, the Maldives, defend a coup and restore the government of then president Abdul Gayoom in 1988, said Marker, whose immediate family has served in each of the three defense wings. He pointed out that the 50th Independent Parachute Brigade that was part of the team that stormed the capital Male was commanded by a Zoroastrian, Brig Farukh Bulsara.
Marker ended with an exposition of the pageantry involved in a naval court-martial and said that punishments have to be seen as deterrents. Citing an example of a case where he was presiding officer at one such naval trial, at around the same time that Harshad Mehta, the Bombay stock scamster, was convicted, Marker said that Mehta was sentenced to only a year-and-a-half for a crime involving Rs 63 crores, whereas the lieutenant commander he was trying was awarded 12 years for a much smaller embezzlement. The court-martial comprises lay members of the armed forces, not trained lawyers.
Chief guest of the evening Julio Ribeiro, commissioner of the Bombay Police from 1982 to 1985, who believes he is "an honorary Parsi, from my days in Poona as a junior officer,” explained that civil society has a major role to play in good governance. Bemoaning that the promise of "more governance and less government” has not been fulfilled, Ribeiro went on to state that "government should not interfere in postings and transfers in the police force.” Commenting on the undue haste with which the Bombay’s police commissioner Rakesh Maria was transferred in September, he stated that the real reasons for the transfer are likely to be political in nature. Ribeiro revealed that Maja Daruwala, daughter of Field Marshal Manekshaw was assisting his NGO (nongovernmental organization) Public Concern for Governance Trust with lobbying for reforms within the police force and had told him that she "would fight for police reforms till I go to my grave.”
Hopeful that the proposed Maharashtra Guarantee of Public Services Bill 2015 would soon become law and help fight corruption, Ribeiro exhorted the audience to sign petitions, work with NGOs and generally get more involved in lobbying for good governance. "If you leave it to the government, nothing will get done,” he concluded.
The evening had begun with a welcome from Behroze Daruwalla, corporate secretary of WZCC and director of the international board, after which Farrokh Rustomji, honorary secretary declared the AGM open and also welcomed the members and guests. Treasurer Xerxes Dastur presented the treasurer’s report and stated that the body had received a corpus donation of Rs 12 lakhs (which now cumulatively stood at Rs 57 lakhs). He exhorted the members to pay their dues in time and also to induct more members.
During the evening, Dastur and Viraf Deboo of Poona were elected to the board of the national chapter.
Delivering the vote of thanks after the speeches of Marker and Ribeiro, Siganporia thanked all the office bearers and members of WZCC, saying Zoroastrians needed to demonstrate "what discipline is and what character is.”