"It is important that the orthodox remain united and steadfast to combat a common foe to safeguard the interest of our Pak Iranshah rather than dissipate our energy attacking each other to the utter glee of our common opponent. The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) will be happy to mediate and bring about an end to the needless controversy for the sake of much needed unity.” So noted Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India (FPZAI) president and BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta in a letter dated January 4, 2011 to the secretary of the Udvada Samast Anjuman published in The Bombay Samachar of January 15, 2011. Mehta had offered to mediate in a dispute sparked off at the Sanjan Day celebrations on November 18, 2010 between FPZAI vice president and World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) founder trustee Areez Khambatta and Dastur Khurshed Dastoor, one of the two high priests of the Iranshah fire temple.
While the Samast Anjuman turned down Mehta’s offer of intervention stating they could manage matters on their own, readers were intrigued to know who the "common foe” was that Mehta alluded to. Writing in The Bombay Samachar of February 6, 2011 Kersee Kabraji of Poona inquired whether the enemy were "the priests of Udvada, Iranshah?” Others speculated the adversaries were the Alert Zoroastrians Association (AZA), the Association for the Revival of Zoroastrianism (ARZ), Ervad Khushroo Madon, Jamsheed Kanga, Homi Khusrokhan, Meher Master-Moos, The Association of Inter-Married Zoroastrians, (AIMZ), The Bombay Samachar, Parsiana and so on.
In response Mehta replied in the Samachar of February 13, 2011, "The common foe is the group or company which has purchased around 200 acres of agricultural land in the vicinity of our Pak Iranshah at Udvada and is now threatening to convert it to NA (non agricultural) land and set up about 400 to 500 farm houses.”
But why has Mehta singled out the hapless developer who bought the land presumably in good faith intending to develop it as there was no caveat against doing so? Udvada has not been declared a heritage precinct thanks to the opposition from WAPIZ who loath Dastoor, former BPP trustee Dinshaw Tamboly, Ahmedabad hotelier Jehangir Cama and others associated with the Foundation for the Development of Udvada. Had Udvada been declared a heritage precinct, development would have been barred and the builder presumably would not have bought the land in the first place.
Mehta is right when he says the community has "a common foe.” Only he doesn’t know who the enemy is.