|
 Far enough
The confrontation that occurred at the Bardoli Jarthosti Anjuman (BJA) annual general meeting on December 1 this year (see “Bardoli brouhaha,” page 35) is indicative of a greater malaise affecting the community: The tendency to either shun democratic norms or exploit them to the extreme.
As the BJA’s former president Jamshed Mohta who led the malcontents commented to Parsiana, Bardoli was once a “most respected” anjuman. This small association located in South Gujarat about an hour’s drive from Surat with a Zoroastrian population of around 90 had once successfully hosted a Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India meeting in November 2003. At that time they inaugurated a cosmopolitan charitable dispensary to assist the needy.
One would have imagined that a well coordinated democratically elected anjuman with like-minded individuals would, through dialog, calmly iron out their differences.
In Surat, where trustees are nominated and not elected, there has always been a certain measure of discontent and disruption. But one attributed this to the lack of say in the punchayet’s functioning. The common person deprived of a vote and unable to stand for elections, tends to publicize his/her disagreement and alienation, and resorts to rowdyism.
Thus it was no surprise that at both the Federation meeting at Ahmedabad in December 2004 and at the December 2007 Bardoli meet, many of the offending participants came from Surat. But now the inability to tolerate authority appears to have spread. And though the means used may be constitutional, the effects are both debilitating and devastating.
At the tumultuous Ahmedabad Federation meeting the ostensible grouse of the dissenters led by orthodox activist Khojeste Mistree was the formation of a truly representative world body. But matters did not end there. Having stymied the formation of the global body, the orthodox formed their own world body, the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) and unleashed a tirade against their supposed adversaries, four trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) and the Parsi Press.
WAPIZ published fortnightly diatribes against anyone who opposed the fundamentalist point of view. They dragged property developer Zarir Bhathena through a slew of litigation to block the construction of Hilla Towers in Labaug in Bombay, a 25-storied building that today houses over 125 Zoroastrian families.
While WAPIZ was unable to thwart Bhathena, they managed to stop the construction of a charitable building in the Dadysett Atash Behram compound in Fanaswadi funded by philanthropist Pallon Mistry, thereby depriving around 70 middle class Zoroastrian families of an abode. The presence of Parsi/Irani residents would have also served to protect the sanctity and the geographic boundaries of the oldest atash behram in Bombay. Non-Parsis had already begun to encroach on the premises.
WAPIZ’s political opposite, the Alert Zoroastrians Association (AZA), also joined in the Punchayet bashing. While WAPIZ took the BPP to court stating the trustees who had resigned could not withdraw their resignation, the AZA obtained a stay from the charity commissioner’s office blocking financial and property dealings of the BPP. As a result around 230 flats, built and under construction, cannot be allotted to community members.
No one denies the right of individuals or organizations to democratically dissent, to write articles, publish periodicals, hold public meetings, lead a demonstration, participate in a meeting or approach a court of law. These are the hard fought for liberties that characterize democracies. But when some activists find that they can indeed weaken, cripple or even paralyze the functioning of an organization, they go for the jugular. A realization must dawn on the purpose being achieved. To lose sight of the greater good while pursuing a sectarian goal benefits no one.
The AZA initially held back from litigation on the understanding that the present trustees would resign and elections under adult franchise would be held eventually. But with the elections being interminably delayed they felt that WAPIZ and its supporters in the BPP might win out so they also joined the legal fray.
WAPIZ’s intentions in taking the BPP to court over the trustees’ resignations was also to prevent trusteeship election by adult franchise. They knew they had little chance of winning under the new scheme. Instead they pinned their hopes on the archaic, indirect Anjuman Committee system.
Thus around 25,000 Parsi/Irani Zoroastrians have been denied, for the present, the right to elect their leaders.
In Bardoli in February 2005 at a public meeting, Mistree spewed out bogus data from the discredited World Christian Encyclopedia to state there were over two million Zoroastrians all over the world including 3,00,000 in Afghanistan. He wanted to raise the bogey of conversion to frighten Parsis/Iranis that they would be swamped by converts. Two years later the Association for Revival of Zoroastrianism (ARZ) cited the same debunked statistics to bolster their claim that Zoroastrianism was spreading. Perhaps to the credit of both Mistree and ARZ this line of propaganda was soon discontinued.
But this demonstrates that whether one is liberal or orthodox, vindictive or supportive, one can lose one’s sense of proportion. One has to calmly assess objectives and ask if one’s actions bring one closer to the end goal or distract from it. Brinkmanship is a threat not only to society at large but also to those who indulge in it.
|
 Editorial Viewpoint
Quotes
Reader's Forum
Events & Personalities
Zoroastrians Abroad
Politics and Policy
Business
Environment
Recent
Issues
7-Feb-2008
21-Jan-2008
7-Jan-2008
|
