Parsi family’s nearly 50-year run in Mumbai Central ward ends

MUMBAI: For the first time in almost half a century, no member of the Mehta family will contest the civic election. Noshir Mehta, now the BMC’s lone Parsi corporator, found his ward split in half during delimitation with both sides being reserved for OBC candidates, and he has no intentions of taking the fight elsewhere.
Since 1967, the Mehta family represented electoral ward 210, which stretches from Navjivan Society to Bellasis Road.Late Rusi Mehta served as corporator until he was shot dead in 1987 after a dispute with a brothel owner on Foras Road. In 1988, his son Noshir contested on a Congress ticket. He has represented the ward for 18 years, while his sister was corporator twice. “When you are in the field you are a soldier,” says the 72-year-old, who even after his father’s death patrolled the area on his bike refusing to let prostitutes solicit clients in his neighbourhood. “We get threats but we don’t worry about them.”
The septuagenarian has taken his ward’s reservation in his stride. He claims he would not have run anyway as he has become forgetful of late. “I took lots of punches to the head during boxing practice in my younger days, which are now having effect,” he quips.
His sister may have stood for a third time if the ward was in the open category and refused to contest from a different seat. “We want to be in touch with our people only,” he says.
Like most parts of the city, the problems here include water shortage, electricity connections and Hindi, Marathi, and Urdu-medium BMC schools running empty. Mehta has proposed that the BMC hand over these schools to Christian convents but the corporation has dismissed this suggestion.
Mehta’s electoral ward has residents from various communities including Marwaris, Dalits, Maharashtrians, Muslims and a miniscule 300 Parsis. However, neither the Shiv Sena nor the Samajwadi Party has been able to gain a foothold here. “Even when the Congress lost everywhere, we would win in our area,” says Mehta, “because whenever a tragedy takes place like a building collapse or a fire, we are the first people there.”
The goodwill generated by the family has done more than just win elections. It even helped keep the neighbourhood calm during the 1992-’93 riots, says Mehta. “We had controlled everything. We were on the road day and night along with our workers.”
Despite his father’s murder, Mehta says he and his brother, Dinshaw Mehta, were intent on entering public service. Dinshaw has been a prominent face in Parsi affairs. He was chairman of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) until 2015 and his son Viraf Mehta is currently a trustee of the BPP.