A reckoning in March?
What should have been an amicable solution to a contentious issue may in all probability end up before the courts. The inability of the present five Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustees to resolve the issue of electoral reforms and the holding of elections for two, long-vacant seats, demonstrates the deep distrust and dislike that exists. The proposed reforms that limit the trustees’ term of office to five years instead of seven and place a ceiling of 10 years on serving would help dismantle the existing structure that permits individuals and families to remain in office for decades.
The issue of electoral reforms is a straightforward one. It would curtail politicking and provide a more efficient, responsive and financially responsible Punchayet. Nearly all the trustees at some point or another have said they favored amending the scheme. Even if they were insincere in their utterances, they know the vast majority of the electorate want accountability, transparency and fiscal responsibility. In end-2013 when Parsiana commissioned the reputed Hansa Research Group to ascertain the views of Bombay Parsis on various issues, 66% favored shortening a trustee’s term, with the largest percentage, 35, opting for a five-year term.
In the past when a trustee’s seat fell vacant and remained so for years, the public was not unduly concerned. But the advent of universal adult franchise (UAF) in 2007 (the first election held under UAF was in 2008) changed all that. Instead of being answerable to a coterie, the trustees became accountable to the entire community.
When the Bombay High Court in 1910 first introduced an election scheme for trustees, they gave weightage to donors and college graduates. It was only in 1980 with the birth of the Committee for Electoral Rights (CER) that lay Parsis began asserting their rights. Further in 2007, a trustee’s term was reduced from 10 to seven years with a limit of 21 years.
In June 2020, trustee Zarir Bhathena died. According to the scheme, an election should have been held within three months of his demise but the seat was kept vacant due to the pandemic and the lockdowns. In December the same year, BPP chairman Yazdi Desai resigned on account of ill health. An election for both seats was accordingly scheduled for March 2021 but delayed by the three majority trustees on instructions from their mentor, former BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta. He cited the pandemic as a reason to delay the election. But few bought his justification, pointing to the loosening of restrictions. A fresh date was set for May, then October 2021 and finally October 2022!
An angry citizenry revolted, with BPP trustee Noshir Dadrawala resigning and going on an indefinite hunger strike. He demanded the elections be held as per the scheme. Others joined the fast. This fasting was an entirely novel approach for the trustees. Several criticized this move alleging all and sundry may opt for this method if they want something. But for a fast to be successful it must have public support and sympathy. Otherwise the only objective those fasting will achieve is a loss of weight.
On the surface, Dinshaw and his three trustees appeared to yield to the pressure exerted by Dadrawala. BPP trustee Viraf Mehta claimed that concern about Dadrawala’s well-being prompted him to relent for the demand to hold elections in March 2022. But, in fact, he and BPP chairwoman Armaity Tirandaz had no choice: One of the three, BPP trustee Xerxes Dastur threatened to resign to break the impasse (see "The Mehta machinations," page 20). Hence Tirandaz and Dastur along with Dadrawala and Kersi Randeria signed the consent papers for submission to the court for ratification.
Viraf has said he will sign the required court papers but had not done so till November 2. In the interim he is holding on to the papers signed by the other trustees and sent to him for his signature.
Other influential individuals also worked behind the scenes to bring about a change of heart. The main mediator, Berjis Desai, an ally of Dinshaw who has ties with Dadrawala and Randeria, swung the deal. He was also the main person behind ushering in UAF. Ironically today he and Dinshaw view UAF as an aberration, a dumbing down of the electorate, a system unsuitable for a public trust. But nearly every Zoroastrian association in the world, barring a few in south Gujarat, elects its leaders through UAF. And the elected representatives perform their duties diligently and well.
Of course, they do not have to manage 4,200 or so flats and their occupants. The BPP sadly functions as a real estate agency instead of a trust. Donations have dried up except for some monies contributed for repairs to Doongerwadi bunglis and a few other structures. The donor public whose largesse and legacies should have filled the BPP’s coffers has long lost faith in the once apex trust. This is largely due to the incessant, internecine quarrels among the trustees over the past two decades and more.
One startling disclosure that was made during the meetings between the trustees and the activists last month indicated that the BPP has an outstanding of Rs 11.4 crores (USD 1,521,276) (see "A tale of two meetings," Parsiana, October 21-November 6, 2021)! For an apex trust to have such a large amount of monies due to so many is shocking. The BPP is supposed to funnel the donations it receives to worthy recipients, not squander or swallow it.
Dadrawala was an unlikely candidate to bring about a revolutionary electoral reform. Derogatorily labeled a pendulum who switches sides (traditionalist to liberal) and an emotional individual who has tendered his resignation more than once, Dadrawala’s fast was decried as dramabaazi (showmanship). There was an expectation that the hunger strike would fizzle out the day it started or the next. He is overweight, suffers from high blood pressure, excessive cholesterol and diabetes. Yet this emotional and sometimes mercurial personality may accomplish the seemingly impossible: Five trustees resigning before the proposed March 27, 2022 elections and initiating the most far-reaching and path-breaking electoral reforms since 2007.