The below is a copy of the letter to the Editor of Jame Jamshed.
This letter is written by good friend Ervad Marzban J Hathiram, who is the head priest of the Behram Baug Agiary and the editor of Frashogard.com
Marzban writes.
Hi Shernaaz,
I was shocked and disgusted to read yesterday’s edition of the Jame. While Jame has upset many heavily laden Sunday stomachs in the past, yesterday’s copy provoked a violent and virulent reaction which even antacids could not rectify.
As a well wisher of Jame I am at a total loss to understand the necessity of publishing the whole page trash. Are the resources of Jame in such precarious condition that you have to stoop to these levels? Or is it that there are powers above you who dictate what should go in the paper and what should not?
As a contributor, I am appalled to find my photograph in the same edition where this kind of rubbishy yellow journalism was practiced. Even the British tabloids would be proud of you!
As a priest, I am enraged that a totally anti-religious, vicious advertisement was allowed to be published in a community newspaper. Do perpetrators of crime publish advertisements after committing their dastardly acts? And do newspapers allow such glorification of an obvious evil? I mean, where are your ethics? On one page you have letters of the High Priests against this – and facing that you have such an advertisement? Was that just a coincidence or a sheer stroke of genius?
I also know for sure that a learned article by a close friend who really toiled to get that article to you in time was knocked off so that this whole page ad could be carried. And you did not even have the courtesy to let him know that the article was not being carried, whereas before you were sending frantic SMSs to get the article to you.
A community newspaper which has such a hallowed tradition, going back more than a hundred years, cannot allow such short sighted behaviour. You are encouraging the demise of our community by publishing such advertisements. You are shaking the faith of thousands of Parsis whose impressionable minds have been corrupted by such insidious acts. By doing so you are taking on unbearable levels of sin on your own soul! Do not let the pulls and pressures of your job compel you to take a course which WILL impact your spiritual progress for far more than a lifetime.
To say that I am very disappointed would be a great understatement. I am really unable to understand why you have allowed yourself to be used in this manner.
Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram
www.frashogard.com