You have hit the nail on the head about the bickering and uselessness of the Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India (FPZAI) as a body politic ("The lows and highs," Editorial Viewpoint, Parsiana, February 7, 2013).
For 10 consecutive years as chief executive officer of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) I realized at the very first of the 20 or so meetings that I attended that in its then (and current) form, the FPZAI is a useless, worthless and non-contributory body of Parsis urgently in need of being scrapped and restructured.
There are many practicable ways in which we can go about it. The fundamental reform is to permit only those who reside continuously in the geographic area of an anjuman for at least three to five years to attend FPZAI meets, after providing proof of their domicile. The current malpractice of manipulating attendance by proving some ancestral connection of having resided in the area of a particular anjuman decades ago should be scrapped.
Also, the existing practice of relying solely on Sorab Katpitia (of Surat) to look after our vast properties in different anjumans is moribund, and should be restructured. I had suggested using the services of powerful local lawyers and retired mamlatdars/collectors and giving them a percentage of the value realized as their commission, along with actual out-of-pocket expenses. The zonal committees should fix the outer parameters of these two criteria.
Fix a time limit for the reacquisition/sale of such properties, and justify an extension, if required. Monitor the progress every six months, and seek reasons for deviations.
The monies realized should be used for ameliorating the lot of our priests, some of whom have to constantly struggle to keep the wolf from the door. Enhance the doles to the indigent so that they can live with dignity.
Earlier, the BPP and FPZAI had debated and ruled out the idea of putting up a Parsi-managed medical college, as no such permission would be granted. It would also need to be attached to a hospital. Instead, we could support bright scholars to the hilt and reserve some seats (as a minority) in medical colleges. The same would apply to students of engineering.
In its present form the FPZAI has been turned into a den of venomous snakes by those who have manipulated the seats at its meetings. We must bulldoze the FPZAI and restructure it beyond recognition. B. T. DASTUR
"The lows and highs" (Editorial Viewpoint, Parsiana, February 7, 2013) provides a clear picture of Parsipanu.
It is Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) chairman Dinshaw Mehta who is on all counts responsible for all the féstas (tantrums) and faatfoot (break-ups) in the Federation.
It was Mehta, as you rightly pointed out, who hitched his wagon to WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis) to become the chairman of BPP and get elected for a third term to have his name included in the Limca Book of Records. Later he realized that he was walking on quicksand. He announced talaq (divorce), and joined forces with apro Muncherji Cama, and so he is the one who should rightly face the music now.
Already, with swiftly calculated moves the Federation has been hijacked by WAPIZ; at the next BPP election when Mehta will have made his exit, in all probability it will be WAPIZ all the way.
Truly, as you say, he rode roughshod over others. Like the United Nations where certain countries have a veto, Mehta used his veto under rule 10, and set another precedent, which should also go down in the history of the Federation as an achievement.
However the bottom line is that in the name of kom ni séva (service to the community) it is all kom na malida méva (benefits from the community). All properties and assets have to be captured, including the Rs 60,000 crores worth of BPP.
BEHRAM AGA
behram_r_aga@yahoo.co.in