Dear Editor,

I write with regards to the EGM of the FPZAI held on the 5th of May 2019. I had attended the same as the representative of the Belgaum Parsi Zarthosti Anjuman. As your publications were also represented at the meeting, you must be aware of the false allegations levied against the “Er. father and son duo from Hubli”, by the Parsi Junction, and also of my strong response to the same. I humbly request you to please print my mail so your readers may be made aware of the facts, as well to aid me to clear their good names.

 Excerpts of the mail addressed to Parvez Driver, Editor & Publisher, Parsi Junction:

“I write in response to certain allegations made in your issue of the Parsi Junction dt. 05.05.2019, Special Issue for the EGM of FPZAI, more particularly to the baseless, malicious and totally false allegations and aspersions cast upon “the Ervad father and son duo of Hubli”, wherein you have alleged that “a part of the Dharvad property has been developed by the Ervad father and son duo of Hubli who are deeply entrenched there unless they have made a deal with Chothia to share the Dharwad property among themselves”.

I was deeply offended by the false aspersions, maligning Er. Hoshang Dalal & his son, Er. Jehangir Dalal, the persons you have sought to malign without naming. You have sought to bring disgrace to them and I wish to know upon what you have based these allegations. Let me take this opportunity to clarify to you what I had said at the EGM, if you were not present or represented.

Er. Jehangir Dalal has been employed as the Panthaky Saheb of Belgaum Anjuman since 2007. He left a lucrative job as engineer with Sony to serve our sacred Atash Padshah. Being a small Anjuman, we were absolutely unable to match his then salary, yet he chose to make the sacrifice to serve as our Mobed Saheb. He has been with us since then, serving our Atash Padshah selflessly and with utmost diligence – not at all the actions of the greedy immoral person you are seeking to portray.

Er. Hoshang retired from serving the Hubli Anjuman after 33 years, in 2015, and has been living with his son in Belgaum since. He has nothing to do with Hubli at all. He is now 84 years old and you will find him at our Agiary most of the day, praying and attending to our Atash Padshah. He has extremely good relations with members of the Hubli Anjuman, who visit him when they can and still have him say their prayers in Belgaum. This utterly disproves your statement about them “being deeply entrenched there”. This matter of the Dharwad land has been going on since 2010, and it was only due to the vigilance of both father and son, that they were able to put a stop to the shameful attempt to sell off the land without consulting or taking into confidence the persons concerned with it, at an amount which was way below the true value of the property. Since then they have been slandered on social media, and other attempts have been made to make their lives a misery.

The true facts of the matter are that both Er. Hoshang and Er. Jehangir have been selflessly looking after the graves at Dharwar Aramgah and taking great care to ensure no encroachments upon the land.

Er. Jehangir has been regularly going to Dharwar to take care of the Aramgah, to see that the graves are protected and ensure there are no encroachments thereon, all at his own personal expense. They have also spent personally for legal advice to protect the Dharwar property, not to mention the huge amount of time they have invested to protect the same, much less the stress and heartache caused to them.

With regards to your aspersion of them having developed part of the property, I would request you to kindly explain on what you have based this allegation. Did your journalistic instinct not require you to verify true facts before you publish something to be put out in the public domain, albeit with a limited circulation by marking the same “For Private Circulation only”?

The true fact is that the Dharwad Burial Ground is NOT developed. Other than the graves, it is open land. Er. Hoshang and Er. Dalal, had made a promise to look after the graves at Dharwar, and this is why they continue to do so despite the vicious attacks on their character.

There is no vested interest here. It is absolutely shameful that a man who has selflessly served his community for years, and brought up his son Er. Jehangir to do the same now faces this kind of harmful, malicious and unwarranted attacks in his twilight years. The heartbreak caused by you and others like you who have sought to malign our Priests is disgraceful indeed. You Sir, through your publication have now printed these false allegations and aspersions cast upon my priests, and have therefore further attempted to disgrace their good names. I therefore now call upon you sir, to urgently print a retraction of these false allegations in your very next issue and also to apologize to our Ervad Sahebs’ publicly for the harm your Parsi Junction has attempted to cause them, just as you publicly sought to malign them.

Azme Mody

Secretary, Belgaum Parsi Zarthosti Anjuman