We the undersigned three trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet wish to record our angst at the repeated personal attacks over the last few weeks on Chairman of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet, Yazdi Desai, in advertorials published under a column called ‘Parsi Darshan’ in the Mumbai Samachar. The language used is not only in poor taste but defamatory and certainly does not reflect well on the image of a newspaper of Mumbai Samachar’s vintage and standing.

An ‘advertorial’ is essentially an advertisement in the form of editorial content. The term ‘advertorial’ is a blend of the words ‘advertisement’ and ‘editorial.’ In printed publications, the advertisement is usually written in the form of an article and designed to ostensibly look like a legitimate and independent news story, but it is not! To this date the community is not aware as to who the ghost-writer of this column is and who is paying for it. It is not too difficult to make an educated guess, but, it would be best if the editor or owners of this newspaper would care to reveal the facts.

However, in the meantime, we, the undersigned, wish to clarify and place on record the following:

1. All decisions are made by the Board and not the Chairman. The decisions and policies are merely conveyed to the community by the chairman
2. Be it allotment of houses or increase in rent, the decisions are made by the Board of trustees at their weekly meetings where the chairman merely presides as first among equals.
3. We the undersigned repose full faith in the chairman. His approach to issues is balanced and inclusive and rarely has he been known to take unilateral decisions or not take his fellow trustees into confidence on any issue. Thus, any attack individually on the chairman is an attack on the Board,

We urge the community not to be swayed or misled by falsehoods spread by anonymous vested interests in paid ‘advertorials’. The fact that one has to pay to ‘report’ a falsehood, and that too under the cloak of anonymity, should say it all.

 

Sincerely,

Zarir Bhathena                    Kersi Randeria                    Noshir Dadrawala

(Trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet)