The Editorial Viewpoint, "Brouhaha over bonus” (Parsiana, September 7, 2018) has revealed the grave financial crisis the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) is facing. The war of words between chairman Yazdi Desai and trustee Viraf Mehta, published in Metro Junction and circulated in the public domain, has humiliated the community. They have leveled against each other very serious charges of fraud, bribery, perjury, manipulation of accounts, cheating, false affidavits, misappropriation of public money, etc which are criminal in nature. The trustees should be aware of the status and dignity of the position they are holding.
Desai is allegedly manipulating the accounts to avoid paying legitimate bonus to the employees, without understanding what bonus means to the workers who have no access to income other than their wages to celebrate their festivals. The huge amounts wasted by the BPP on meaningless litigations have emptied our coffers and humiliated our community. BPP is not an ocean of wealth which will not dry up, however much we draw from it. The amounts saved could have been put to better use and that brouhaha over bonus could have been avoided. Besides spoiling relations with the Union, we have staked our honor and dignity by not fulfilling the commitments we had made.
Thanks to our visionary ancestors, we still have assets to generate wealth. We do not require 55 acres of Doongerwadi land for performance of funerary rituals. Some dakhmas and a number of bunglis remain unused with a decline in our numbers. We can generate some income by planting sandalwood trees and growing roses and lilies for use in ceremonies. The sweepers and gardeners who get full pay and work for two hours as alleged, will be kept occupied without incurring additional expenditure. We can establish an old age home like the ones at Navsari to fulfill the needs of the aging community. Anyone having 55 acres of prime property expects to generate handsome income. Instead we are incurring a loss of over four-and-a-half crore rupees (USD 6,16,642) annually.
The steady flow of donations has dried up due to the outrageous policies of the trustees who have been elected to solve, not to create problems for the community. It is not the trustees’ business to interfere in religious matters. Their duty is to preserve and protect the funds, estates and properties of the BPP, and to solve community problems without the intervention of courts. They do not have any legal right or authority to frame rules and impose punishments.
PIROJA HOMI JOKHI
piroja.jokhi@yahoo.com