.

There have been a lot of rumours floating around about the formalization of the GWG and the BPP’s support towards this. This is not true and we are issuing this public clarification to clear any doubts or misconceptions on the same.

During the GWG meeting held on December 21st, discussions were held to formalize the GWG. Yazdi Desai represented the FPZAI while Armaity Tirandaz, Kersi Randeria, Viraf Mehta and Xerxes Dastur were the Trustees present from the BPP. Noshir Dadrawala and Zarir Bhathena were unable to attend this meeting due to prior commitments.

At the start of discussions, all GWG members were handed a booklet which contained legal guidelines on how to formalize the GWG and its structure.

We would like to point out that the BPP Trustees were absolutely blind-sided by this. We were not aware that any such discussions were taking place. In fact, it was only in this meeting that we were given to understand that Yazdi Desai, along with Mr. Neville Shroff of HK/Macau, Mrs. Meher Bhesania of Dubai, Rohinton Rivetna of FEZANA and Yazdi Tantra of the WZCC, had already had a few meetings with Solicitor Burjor Antia, on the formalization of the GWG. None of the other BPP Trustees were informed nor consulted on this. Randeria strongly vocalized serious concerns as to why Trustees were bypassed in such a brazen fashion, not having the slightest inkling of what was being discussed.

The main fear with the GWG was the inclusion of Zoroastrians from other parts of the world. The BPP/FPZAI have always maintained that the GWG will only be for the Parsi/Irani Zoroastrians of the world, otherwise the BPP/FPZAI would walk out of the GWG.

In fact, during the GWG meeting, Viraf Mehta asked the Chair to verify that the GWG is and always will be for Parsi/Irani Zoroastrians ONLY and this structure will never be changed now or in the future. To this, Chairman of the FPZAI, Yazdi (also Chair of the GWG) replied in the affirmative.

To make this abundantly clear, there was NO decision taken to formalize the GWG because of the various concerns of the members present. 

It was discussed and agreed that for now, only “Draft Guidelines” for the formalization of the GWG would be sent to all members within 2-3 months and their response would be sought before the end of February 2019.

This is when the opinion of each member was requested and All members (including Chairman Yazdi Desai) were in agreement that we would first peruse the Draft Guidelines before taking these discussions further. Chairman Yazdi Desai had initially said “No”, but then subsequently agreed with the proposal to take this forward, with the caveat that the consent of FPZAI members would be sought, before the final go-ahead would be given.

The members will have two months to prepare their concerns and comments based on these guidelines.

The next GWG meeting is scheduled to take place in Orlando (USA) in May 2019. Further discussions on the formalization of the GWG will take place then.

We hope this puts to rest any doubts or rumours that have started.

 

Regards,

Armaity R. Tirandaz – Trustee, BPP
Kersi J. Randeria – Trustee, BPP
Viraf D. Mehta – Trustee, BPP
Xerxes V. Dastur – Trustee, BPP