Udvada high priest writes to PM Modi, urges restraint in Tata-SP Group rift

Mumbai: The high priest of the Iranshah Atash Behram in Udvada has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help preserve philanthropic values amid the public dispute involving Tata Sons, the Tata Trusts and the Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group.

In a letter dated November 11, Vada Dasturji Khurshed Dastoor said he was writing with "concern and distress" at what began as a corporate and governance matter but has since become a prolonged public disagreement that could affect institutions and relationships built over generations. He expressed hope that all parties would show "restraint, wisdom and maturity" and choose dialogue over confrontation.

The high priest also drew the Prime Minister's attention to what he called the "silent but substantial" philanthropic work of the SP Group for the Zoroastrian community over more than three decades. He said this included restoring several fire temples in western and northern India, among them the Iranshah Atash Behram in Udvada, the Vesu Agiary in Surat, the New Delhi Dar-e-Meher and the Thoothi Agiary in Mumbai. The group had also made a substantial endowment to London's SOAS, which led to the SOAS Shapoorji Pallonji Institute for Zoroastrian Studies, and had set up and run an old age home within the grounds of Parsi General Hospital in Mumbai. It also provides financial and managerial support to Masina Hospital and runs an institution for aged widows in the city, he said, adding that these were among many initiatives. He hoped the group's record would serve as inspiration for other philanthropic organisations.


Describing the Parsi community as "tiny" but proud of being apolitical, law-abiding and a constructive contributor to national growth, the high priest said its interests, the Tata philanthropic legacy and the wider national interest were too important to be compromised by prolonged differences between individuals or institutions. Preserving philanthropic institutions and upholding the rule of law were not competing objectives, he wrote, but could be "mutually reinforcing".

He urged that the matters be resolved within the framework of the law and in a spirit of reconciliation, noting that institutional legacies endure when the values that gave them standing are upheld. Thanking the Prime Minister for his support to the community over the years, he said the community had full faith that whatever decision he took would benefit the country and the Zoroastrian community.