| June 22, 2008 | Sunday | Jamadi-us-Sani 17, 1429 |
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A master brewer
WITH many others, his family and his friends, I mourn the death of my distant cousin, friend, gentleman, legislator and most loyal citizen of Pakistan Minocheher Pestonjee Bhandara (March 14, 1938 — June 15, 2008).
He died as he had lived, liked by all who knew him, respected for his uprightness, his loyalty and his honesty of purpose.As a legislator, he did his best for his country and for its people, coming close to the performance of his forbears, the first three Indian legislators, all Parsis, who in the early part of last century sat in the House of Commons in Westminster, London — the mother of parliaments upon which that of the Republic of Pakistan has so far miserably failed to model itself.
The three were Dadabhai Naoroji, a Liberal, elected from Finsbury Central (1892-1895); Sir Muncherjee Bhownagree, a Tory, elected from Bethnal Green North East (1895-1906); and Sir Shapurjee Saklatwalla, a communist elected from Battersea North (1922-1929).
A probably apocryphal story is told of Saklatwalla. Once, at an evening session in the House, a fellow member stood up and asked for an elucidation from the honourable member for Battersea North. He headed the House of Tata in Great Britain, had his offices in Grosvenor Gardens overlooking the grounds of Buckingham Palace where he arrived in a Rolls Royce each morning, clad in a morning coat and spats. But come the evenings, and he dismissed his chauffeur, changed into rough tweeds, hired a hansom cab and crossed the river to visit his constituency in Battersea. He sat in the House as the first elected communist member of the British parliament. ‘Now, Mr Speaker, I ask, is he a capitalist or a communist?’
Small in stature, lordly Saklatwalla rose, paused theatrically, and turned to the speaker. ‘My honourable friend must be informed. In order to survive as a communist, I have to be a capitalist.’
Friend Minoo was a capitalist. He graduated from the Punjab University, went on to Oxford to do a PPE at Brasenose but was there only for a year. In 1958 he joined his family business, Murree Brewery, in Rawalpindi. Founded in 1861 to slake the thirst of the British Raj, the original brewery in Murree was torched by a charged, uninformed and foolish mob in 1947. It was then rebuilt amidst the green trees of what is now the Jinnah National Park, on National Park Road, diagonally opposite the gates of Army House which now houses a down but not out President Gen Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan Army retired).
Minoo was chief executive of Murree Brewery since 1961. In 1981 he was appointed a member of Ziaul Haq’s Majlis-i-Shoora, serving as advisor to the President of Pakistan on minority affairs, and this as a Parsi and a brewer to a president renowned for his stern over-the-top religiosity. It is a measure of Minoo’s gentle character and diplomacy that throughout the turbulent Talibanised years he and the brewery survived and throve, as they have survived the local political mullahs and their nonsense. He was elected to the National Assembly in 1985 and in 2002.
He did his best whilst sitting in the deplorable assembly of 2002-07 to urge on the man who preached ‘enlightened moderation’ to actually infuse some of the stuff into our national scenario. On Sept 12, 2006, as a member of parliament from the ruling party, Minoo Bhandara, moved a private bill, the subject of which was that mythical thing known as the ‘ideology of Pakistan’, asking his fellow parliamentarians to “Tell us what exactly is the ideology of our country...”. He rightly observed that it was not reflected in the Objectives Resolution (a disaster from which this country has never recovered) which forms both the Preamble to the Constitution of Pakistan and its Annexe. The bill was naturally rejected as the honourable representatives of the people of Pakistan were not in unanimity as to what exactly is the ideology. They had their own varied interpretations but none wished a
debate. Bhandara had made
his point.
These people’s representatives do not and cannot talk to each other, they merely talk at each other, make a lot of noise, thump their desks and then walk out. None have courage or convictions.
In April last year, in an effort to bolster the law and order situation, he inserted a notice in Dawn:
“Quaid-i-Azam’s Speech of Aug 11, 1947. A Constitutional (Amendment) Bill has been moved in the National Assembly, which purports to include the famous speech of the Quaid or its salient features, as a substantive part of Article 2 of the Constitution. Details can be seen at www.quaidvision11august1947.info Click your support or email M P Bhandara, Member, National Assembly of Pakistan, at murbr@isb.paknet.com.pk.”
Public support, naturally, in this nation in which the minority literate are largely wimps or lemmings, was not hugely forthcoming, just as it was not in that most dishonourable and lethargic of assemblies.
Apart from his spirit of patriotism, which rang true as opposed to most spirits of patriotism with which we are confronted, the love of Minoo’s life was his brewery. Spiegel Online carried an article on his latest venture in its issue of Aug 17, 2007, entitled ‘A Touch of Scotland in Dry Pakistan’ all about ‘Distilling the Muslim World’s First 20-Year–Old Whisky.’ This was prior to the launch of a rare, one-off product of the brewery, Minoo’s pride and joy, a 20-year old single malt whisky. He insisted to his interviewer that the existence of a brewery in a country where the 97 per cent Muslim majority is, under the law, barred from drinking, is not a freak occurrence. “It merely reflects an age-old tolerance which the West is ignorant about.” But, as remarked the interviewer, “Bhandara’s faith in his country’s secularism is a far cry from Pakistan’s post 9/11 reputation as a nest for Islamic terrorists.”Well, one more good man gone, and one good man less in this republic now flailing and faltering under a neo-democracy imposed by its great friend and benefactor. But it is good to know that there are old friends who even in their times of travails and troubles remember their old friends.
Minoo’s neighbour, President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf (PA retd), with his wife Sehba, visited Minoo at CMH in Rawalpindi, the first hospital to which he was admitted after his horrible road accident in China, and they later crossed the road to call on the bereaved family the day after Minoo died.
His soul will undoubtedly rest in peace, for he was a good man. Let us raise a jar and remember him with gladness.
arfc@cyber.net.pk
