He’s been accused of corruption, high-handedness and more in his almost two decade long “career” at the Bombay Parsi Punchayet, but it’s been water off a duck’s back for veteran trustee Dinshaw Mehta (inset). Currently the BPP chairman, Mehta is notorious for his rough manner and street-fighter aggression — an aberration for a most refined and genteel Parsis which he has exploited with devastating effect. In 2006, his browbeating resulted in four former BPP trustees including eminent economist Minu Shroff and legal eagle Burjor Antia putting in their resignations citing Mehta’s “frequent misrepresentation, manipulation and manoeuvring”.
For once though, Mehta finds himself on the backfoot after serious allegations of financial misdemeanour by several serving BPP trustees. The matter, which has found its way to the Economic Offences Wing, involves the discovery that Mehta had pocketed several lakh in cash in connection with a property allotment he okayed. Mehta insists he’s innocent until proven guilty, but there’s outrage at his intransigence with angry calls for his resignation. The BPP is the largest landholder in Mumbai after the Mumbai Port Trust, and Mehta’s opponents have routinely suspected him of irregularities — now they’ve caught him with his hand literally in the cookie jar.
Leading the charge for the trustees is architect Jimmy Mistry (inset with friend Parvez Damania) and Zoroastrian scholar Khojeste Mistree. The matter has vertically split the city’s Parsi community and is now creasing the brows of several Parsi luminaries who are worried by the shadow this will cast on the upcoming 10th World Zoroastrian Congress in Mumbai this month.
There was much hope following Nusli Wadia’s intervention a few weeks ago — the respected industrialist made both sides buckle down and agree to a formula, but Dinshaw Mehta simply “disappeared” from the premises before the papers could be signed. He apparently surfaced the very next day to intimidate the trustees again, following which they filed another complaint against him. Yesterday, it was the turn of another Parsi giant Cyrus Poonawalla — who happens to be one of the major sponsors of the Congress — to play peacemaker. Ironically, Mehta is hanging tight and claiming the “internal matter” has no bearing on the Congress being organised by the BPP. A time-out is likely during the Congress, but with support building up for Jimmy Mistry and the other trustees, Mehta remains on a sticky wicket. Soon delegates from across India and world will start arriving for the landmark Zoroastrian Congress — President Pranab Mukherjee is the guest of honour for the momentous occasion — but that’s just a tense interval for this unfortunate drama.
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