Endorsement by Zarine Engineer for Anahita

Anahita Desai Will Make A Wonderful BPP Trustee

I hope the Community Unites to Support her Candidature

I have seen Anahita Desai working with so many different groups for so many community projects, that I have often wondered how she manages to handle everything so efficiently. Whether it is a youth activity or one for senior citizens, a big project or a personal problem faced by an individual, I have seen Anahita working to help them all, and have greatly admired her commitment to the community. 

Almost 10 years back, Anahita and her husband Yazdi were involved in protecting our doongerwadi at the time when the DDD-AG had raised its head to demand a cremate-in-bungli. Therefore, years later, I was not surprised when this husband-wife team got together with other orthodox leaders to form WAPIZ to counter the reformist movement, which was again gaining ground among the rich and elite in the community. 

Since then, WAPIZ has proved its worth on the orthodox front and besides that, has undertaken so many other worthy projects for the benefit of the community, which I greatly appreciate. As the CEO of WAPIZ, Anahita is solely responsible for taking forward these projects -medical aid, educational aid, mobed scheme, etc. 

It is clear that this husband and wife team have dedicated their lives to the community. 

On the Mancherji Edulji Joshi Memorial Trust, (MEJMT) which is a Public Trust like the BPP, albeit smaller, I served together with my husband Jimmy, till his untimely demise. Even now, we have the husband-wife team of Mithoo and Jimi Jesia serving on the MEJMT Trust at the same time. Their working together for the Trust has strengthened and enhanced the working of the Trust and in similar vein Yazdi and Anahita's working together, will definitely strengthen the working of the BPP. Therefore, I request all to please examine the sincere commitment of this young couple to the community and their excellent quality of leadership and service, and not disqualify Anahita, only because she is Yazdi's wife. 

Although Anahita does not reside in Dadar Parsi Colony, she has still supported and lent Dadar a helping hand for protecting our five gardens and other open spaces in the Colony-and for me, that shows her outstanding quality of extending herself, even beyond what is expected of her. 

For all the above reasons, I feel that Anahita Desai is truly deserving of Bombay Parsi Punchayet trusteeship and I urge all of you to unite and strongly support her candidature. 

Sd. Mrs. Zareen Engineer (Grand-daughter of Mancherji E. Joshi, the Founder of Dadar Parsi Colony, and President of Dadar's Residents Association)

Endorsement by High Priests, Dasturji Dr. Firoze Kotwal & Dasturji Kaikhusroo N. Jamaspasa for Anahita

Dear Community members,

In these troubled times it is imperative that a candidate who stands for BPP trusteeship should be a person with impeccable credentials and one who will at all times support the cause of our religion and safe guard the faith. In our view as High Priests, it is most important that a trustee must have a track record of upholding orthodox causes and to have worked ceaselessly towards preserving the sanctity of our religious institutions. Keeping in mind the above criteria, we believe that Anahita Desai is absolutely the right candidate for BPP trusteeship.

We have worked with Anahita closely on many community issues for the last more than 12 years. She has defended Agiaries from builders, financially supported buzorg Mobed Sahebs, helped mobilize support for so many orthodox causes and taken up cudgels for poor Parsis, who have nowhere else to turn. She is selflessly serving our religion and our community, spending her own money and giving all her time to community causes. 

Anahita has done all of this for so many years without any thought of becoming a BPP trustee. But now, when this sudden election has come about, we must take this opportunity and give her a chance to serve the community even better, through the BPP, where she can use the vast resources of our apex trust, and not just her personal finances, for the good of the poor and for safeguarding the religion. 

It is our firm belief that if Anahita is given the opportunity to work shoulder to shoulder with her husband Yazdi and the other trustees on the BPP Board, it will strengthen the BPP in a way that will most certainly benefit the community. 

In times such as these, when our religion is being mercilessly attacked from all sides and the community is being torn apart, Anahita Desai's candidature as a BPP Trustee should be supported not only by all those who espouse the cause of orthodoxy and want to see our religion safeguarded at the level of the BPP, but by all right-thinking Parsis, who want to see a more charitable and benevolent face for the Bombay Parsi Punchayet.

Sd: High Priests, Dasturji Dr. Firoze Kotwal & Dasturji Kaikhusroo N. Jamaspasa

Husband and Wife Team

Have Public Charitable Trusts had members from the immediate family as trustees at the same time? –
The Answer is  YES!

Why then is Anahita Desai being wrongly singled out on this point?

Speaking solely from within the framework of the Parsi/Irani community, we will let the many examples (of 2 members of an immediate family, serving at the same time on a PUBLIC CHARITABLE TRUST, be they husband and wife, siblings, father and son, or mother and daughter), speak for themselves:

Banoo Cama and Manchi Cama (Mother and son – Garib Zarthosti Rehthan Fund)
Late Nusserwanji Cama and Manchi Cama (Father and son – K.R. Cama Oriental Institute)
Dinshaw Tamboly and Bachi Tamboly  (husband and wife – all WZO Trust Funds)
Meherwanji Cursetjee Jeejeebhoy and  Cowasjee Cursetjee Jeejebhoy  ( 2 brothers - Bombay Parsi Punchayet)
Sir Cowasjee Jehangir and Lady Hirabai Cowasjee Jehangir  ( husband and wife - Bombay Parsi Punchayet)
Late Jimmy Engineer and Zareen Engineer   (husband and wife - Mancherji Edulji Joshi Memorial Trust)
Jimi Jesia and Mithoo Jesia  (husband and wife - Mancherji Edulji Joshi Memorial Trust)
Keki Pavri and Pheroza Pavri [husband and wife - Ahmedabad Parsi Punchayet)
Navroze Kanga and Shirin Kanga (husband and wife -  Ahmedabad Parsi Punchayet)

ALL the above mentioned Trusts are PUBLIC CHARITABLE TRUSTS, where the public have donated moneys in the same way as they have in the BPP. None of the above are family Trusts. So history has provided proof that 2 people from the same immediate family can, and have been, Trustees at the same time, on Public Charitable Trusts.

Why then is Anahita Desai being wrongly singled out on this point? Is it because VESTED INTERESTS HAVE NOTHING ELSE THEY CAN USE TO BRING HER DOWN?  Anahita Desai's Clean and Honest Image seems to be bringing out the worst in her opponents!  

This information has been forwarded by Tannaz Parakh.