People holding public office often lament they do not get due recognition for the work they do and the results they achieve. Many believe that the public dwells on their failings rather than their considerable accomplishments. To assist the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) in offsetting this image, Parsiana sent individual emails to all seven trustees on March 25, 2025 asking them to list their achievements and shortcomings since they assumed office in end-May 2022. The present board comprises three trustees who had served on the earlier board and four who were elected for the first time. All would have served three years or around 1,000 days of their current term and been in a fair position to relate what they had accomplished and what was yet to be completed or undertaken. In response to Parsiana’s queries, the BPP chairman Viraf Mehta inquired the same day whether a joint or individual statement/s were required from the board. We replied the option to reply jointly or individually was theirs. We had given a deadline of April 7 for submitting replies.
Parsiana had written: "You may consider the major problems confronting the community in Bombay and elsewhere and what you have done, are doing and may consider doing, to alleviate the impediments. There are the issues of diminishing numbers, an aging and ailing community, growing monetary dependency, limited financial and personnel resources. The BPP struggles to meet its financial commitments and is involved in litigation with at least one of its labor unions. Plans to monetize some of your assets have been repeatedly stated without any specifics being cited, permissions obtained, notices being published, or deadlines being stated.
"We are not specifying any word length but will edit your replies for purposes of brevity and style.”
When we did not hear from any of the trustees, we sent a reminder on April 8 inquiring whether they would be responding. Again there was total silence.
The trustees are not compelled to answer. The BPP election scheme provides no such provision for public accountability. The trustees may well reason that if they spend their time answering queries from the media, the trust’s work may suffer. After all, they are rendering honorary service in addition to their professional and personal commitments. Wouldn’t their limited time be better utilized elsewhere?
But the alacrity they displayed when reacting to a video of the Ashem Vohu prayer set to music and dance uploaded on social media in the first week of April by a choreographer, indicated that more than a lack of time it was a matter of priorities. On their bombayparsipunchayet.org blog they stated their "deep concern and dismay” at the "blasphemous and deeply offensive depiction.” They demanded the video be withdrawn and stated they were "in the process of complaining to the Cyber Crime department” and seeking "other such legal recourse including lodging criminal proceedings.” This caused a former BPP trustee, Noshir Dadrawala, to quip, "The board has all the time, inclination and speed for such non-issues (while) for bigger issues like defunct anjuman properties there is procrastination because it involves hard work… Condemning a video is easy…There was no vulgarity. The visuals could have been more sober but to sing the Ashem Vohu is not a sin or crime.”
On April 15, Parsiana received an email from cinematographer Hemant Chaturvedi who photographs defunct Parsi aramgahs (graveyards), amongst other subjects (see "Aramgahs: A dying legacy,” February 21-March 6, 2024). He noted the cemetery in Bina in Madhya Pradesh is "completely erased by encroachment, like the Varanasi aramgah which is now invisible, appropriated by thugs and land sharks.” In Daund and Gadag the same scenario is repeated. Since January 2023 the new BPP board has not held a single meeting of The Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India and presumably of its defunct anjumans committee that is supposed to safeguard or dispose of at market rates the properties of anjumans that no longer have sufficient Parsis in the area to manage their assets.
The BPP blog condemning the video incidentally makes no mention of the reopening to the public of the F. D. Alpaiwalla Museum on March 27. This omission despite the institution being owned and administered by the BPP and the trustees being present at the function which received extensive coverage and accolades in the local and national press and on social media. Sadly, even the 300th anniversary celebrations of the Bhikha Behram Well did not merit mention on the blog (the Well is a different trust with no connection to the BPP but is a well-known and revered city landmark). So why did the song and dance video rank so high in the trustees’ priorities? They were undoubtedly appealing to their orthodox voter base.
Rumors had been circulating for some time that the panels that deflect the sun’s rays onto the corpses left on the circular, demarcated horizontal surface within the towers of silence had broken down. Parsiana had WhatsApped two trustees of the BPP to inquire if there was any truth to the rumor. Disposal of the dead is a sensitive subject and we wanted to make certain of the position. Neither trustee responded. In the meantime, on February 26, The Free Press Journal published the story quoting the BPP chairman as stating, "the solar equipment broke down just before the Covid pandemic and due to Covid could not be repaired. ‘We will consult the high priests before we do anything.’” The BPP spends rupees three to four crores (USD 467,415 to USD 750,561) annually for the upkeep of the 50 to 55-acre plot reserved for the disposal of the dead.
The board considers itself a keeper of the faith. But if that was so why did it not keep the solar panels at three or so dakhmas in working condition these past five years? And why was the community not informed of their non functioning?
The panels were initially installed around 25 years ago with the approval of the high priests. So the question of seeking permission does not arise. Not that the trustees abide by what the clergy say. When Dastur (Dr) Firoze Kotwal and others gave their consent for priests at Doongerwadi to pray a few verses while facing the dakhmas for the souls of those who perforce had to be cremated due to Covid, the majority of the trustees of the earlier board voted to deny the aggrieved family members that small consolation.
In contrast, the newly elected trustees of the Poona Parsi Panchayat set about with alacrity replacing the damaged solar panels at their Doongerwadi. Their finances are better managed than the BPP’s, but they still roped in a donor. In Bombay, when finance was reportedly stated as a constraint, donors came forth but nothing was done.
The BPP trustees may have reasons for their erratic and confounding behavior but until they publicly state their reasons, the community is at a loss to fathom their thinking or the lack of it.
In response to a Parsiana questionnaire sent to all 15 trusteeship aspirants and published in our May 2022 issue, all seven who were elected as trustees agreed "they would insist the board of trustees hold annual meetings with the community.” So far not a single such meeting has been held.
On whether to restart the BPP Review and publish/disseminate news on trust activities, all said yes. But to date they have not delivered on their promise. Only the annual accounts are posted on their blog.
Not answering Parsiana’s March 2025 questionnaire or citing any reason for not doing so may be viewed as a matter of individual preference or prejudice. But keeping the community uninformed is a dereliction of duty.