Answer, Shall I Have It?  

Answer, shall I have it? In the play, ‘Merchant of Venice’, Shylock asks this question in the Venetian court whether the court will allow him to have the pound of flesh nearest to the heart of Antonio the Merchant, as per the bond. The “flesh” nearest to the community’s heart is the question, ‘how come one of the richest trust funds, which was once flushed with crores of Rupees is nearly broke today?’ The community deserves an answer. Shall we have it?

The first board of trustees were elected by the Adult Franchise Scheme to the august office of the BPP in 2008.  BPP was then flushed with funds. The community would like to know the amount of funds the BPP had in its coffers when the first board under AFS took over the reins of the BPP. How come the ‘scraping-at-the-bottom-of-the-barrel’ situation exists today??

The community has the right to know how the funds were frittered away, wasted, misused or abused. If the BPP provides us the answers to this questions, it will help awaken the community in knowing whom to vote in the coming elections – and more importantly – WHOM NOT TO VOTE FOR.

The community deserves an answer. Shall we have it?

By Dara Khodaiji

---

Happy New Year, PT! Keep Up The Good Work!

Every weekend, my entire family and I look forward to receiving Parsi Times in our email, which reaches us like clockwork since few years. It is truly the favourite publication of us Parsis all over the world. I share it with my sisters and cousins and Parsi friends, in different corners of the world, and we all greatly enjoy the read.

I commend the editor for the excellent articles and features we get to read every week as it keeps us feeling connected with our India. A complete and holistic experience – we read about our religion, the community news, helpful features by top doctors, funny articles which make us start the weekend with laughter, especially the captions which are a big hit and always looked forward to! I thoroughly enjoy reading the editorial – it always provides good insights and food for thought.

Wishing all at PT a Happy New Year! Keep up the good work!

By Shirrin J Shroff (Montreal, Canada)

 

---

So, When Are The BPP Elections??

From the past so many months now, the community has been subject to the shenanigans of the very leaders that we elected to the BPP. If it is unethical and illegal to contain a Board to just 5 Trustees, how and why is this going on and on? The latest we know is that the five Trustees finally agreed on holding the elections in March this year. But that too seems suspect, if other reports are to be considered with the majority Trustees once again putting a spanner in the works and sticking to their refusal to let go of their seats before October!

Why is there so much insecurity amongst the majority trustees? To the community it looks like they are certain they will lose the next elections so they want to squeeze out as much time as possible in the current tenure, and to hell with what is right or wrong for the community or the Trust, legal or illegal, duties or responsibilities!

It is so shameful that Parsi politics has stooped to this level. Clearly, the only two trustees who seem to want to correct the wrongs find themselves helpless as the minority. And with them, the whole community’s welfare is also held to ransom by the selfishness and insecurity of the other three. It is indeed greatly disappointing that the respectful Chairperson, despite her age and wisdom, also chooses to look the other way and do absolutely nothing to set right this abominable and unforgivable situation.

What I want to know as a member of this community, is when are the BPP elections?? Will they even be held in March or then, October? Or will the current majority simply take over the trust for good and treat it as their personal fiefdom, as they have been doing since the years?

By Adar U. Patel