Two steps forward
After 12 years of conflict in the Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India (FPZAI) and seven years of turmoil in the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), the successful and peaceful holding of the all-India body meet and the BPP trusteeship elections this April are an indication that the community is finally getting down to business.
No doubt many major anjumans did not attend the April 2 and 3 meet of the FPZAI and three court hearings preceded the trusteeship election, but allowing for the scale of conflict, mistrust and dislike of the past decade and more, this at least was a new, hopeful beginning. Even the reception to felicitate BPP trustee Armaity Tirandaz on her keenly contested reelection victory went off smoothly. While the speeches were brief, both sides of the divide were cordial and keen to get down to the mundane day-to-day business of the apex Bombay trust.
The six trustees have their hands full clearing up the mess their predecessors created over the past seven years. When the new board occupied office in October 2015, the once cash rich trust was unable to pay salaries on time without breaking fixed deposits, [the priests ban case had bled the BPP coffers to the tune of over three crore rupees (US $ 450,512)], around 200 flats were lying un-allotted, the BPP boardroom witnessed trustees on the verge of assaulting one another, nasty emails being circulated, a demoralized staff with senior executives either being pushed out or quitting, allegations of financial impropriety, large amounts of cash being found in a cupboard, the employees union threatening a strike, and so on. It is to the credit of the new board that they got down to sorting out the mess bit by bit.
Trustees’ meetings are held twice a week instead of once and continue late into the night and even early morning, advertisements have been issued stating when the public can meet the trustees, the Press which was treated with hostility at times was issued invitations to functions where in the past they would have been unwelcome. But perhaps the best indication of a change of heart was the holding of the April 10 election. For once the voters’ convenience was to the fore. In the October 2015 elections, voters had to stand in the sun sometimes for hours, two venues had no toilets, long queues and delays meant some people did not vote at all while others returned a second and/or even a third time to cast their ballot.
Having drawn a lesson from that exercise the new board saw that numbered tokens were issued, mandaps were built to provide shade, chairs, drinking water, tea and coffee were available and court appointed officials oversaw the process. Rather than stand on ceremony, the trustees bent over backwards to accommodate the community’s needs, a change from the old approach when all decisions, right or wrong would be taken by the trustees unmindful of the consequence.
This new outlook was also manifested at the two-day FPZAI meet. Here BPP trustee Kersi Randeria asked the question that should have been put to the all-India body much earlier. Is the FPZAI’s intention only to hear problems or to also have an action plan to resolve them? In the recent past, and even earlier, when anjumans raised issues they were told to write to the body or the BPP with their problem. After that the letter lay in the files, without acknowledgement and probably without being read. The conflicts that tore the BPP asunder also took a toll on the all-India body.
Ever since the fatal meeting in Ahmedabad in 2004 the FPZAI became the battleground for community issues. (The formation of a world body was the spark that ignited the flame.) The FPZAI is the only community forum at which the Press is present when deliberations take place. The other organizations meet behind closed doors. Hence the FPZAI became the venue, especially for those who held no public office to vent their point of before the Press. Through an insidious clause in the FPZAI rules and regulations that permitted anjumans to authorize any person to represent them at the meet, all and sundry attended. These representatives often had no connection with the place nor any knowledge of the anjuman’s assets, population or problems. Efforts to modify this clause met with little success. The report of a committee to amend the lacuna lay with the BPP trustees for years. Only at the last meeting was it finally taken up for discussion. This is perhaps the first sign that the Federation is serious about being a truly representative, all-India body.
Many anjumans continue to boycott the meetings. There were no representatives from the East Zone. Secunderabad-Hyderabad have suspended their membership, Bangalore dropped out decades ago under the apprehension that the FPZAI was reformist in nature, Poona was absent, as it has been for several meetings. Delhi attended after a gap of several meetings. The majority of the anjumans were from Gujarat.
The resignation of Sorab Katpitia from the defunct anjumans committee was expected. He had been hounded by the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis and was viewed as being in former Federation president Dinshaw Mehta’s camp. Now the FPZAI is left with a committee to look into the dwindling and defunct anjumans but no one to do the leg work in the West Zone. Whether they will be able to appoint any one in Katpitia’s place is questionable. In the past, those hired lost interest early. Katpitia knew the lay of the land, had the contacts and the knowhow. If the committee intends to be more than a talk shop, they will now have to show results.
But allowing for the disastrous past, any sign of change in both the BPP and the FPZAI is welcome. Both bodies have a long way to go to recover lost ground. But at least the first steps — in the right direction — are being taken.