We are living in difficult times

This book purports to give a true history of Auroville’s early days up to the passing of the Auroville Foundation Act in 1988. But it entirely fails in this objective. The book reads as a justification of the position of the Sri Aurobindo Society and contains no reference to the outlook of the early Aurovilians who, till the end of the book, are referred to as “the rebels”. Former Aurovilian Michel Danino, who lived in those strenuous times, permitted us to publish his view on this book. [see article in this issue]

The second attack has come from an individual known as Mr. Vikram Ramakrishnan, who has been using the Indian Right to Information (RTI) Act to file many requests for information about Auroville, either directly to the Auroville Foundation or to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Auroville’s nodal ministry. The immediate reason is Vikram’s dissatisfaction that Auroville did not agree with his assertion that the house near Kuilapalayam village he had been renting from a villager and its surrounding land were owned by Auroville and not by the villager, and that Auroville did not come to his aid when he was then assaulted by ruffians, nor secured police protection for him afterwards. Auroville’s stand that the attack was because of Vikram’s own behaviour and that Auroville is in no position to tell the police what to do was not accepted by him. 

Vikram then started questioning the honesty and integrity of Auroville and many Aurovilians. His numerous RTI applications – one numbered more than 500 pages – caused an immense amount of work for the Under Secretary and the RTI officer of the Auroville Foundation and for the Working Committee of the Residents’ Assembly. Not satisfied with their responses, he started writing directly to Indian authorities, making allegations about the misdeeds of the Under Secretary of the Auroville Foundation and of Auroville trusts, of working groups and individual residents and about them not following the ideals of Auroville and about corruption in Auroville. 

The Enquiry Committee

When he started writing to the hon’ble President and hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Dr. Karan Singh, the Chairman of the Auroville Foundation, decided to take action. On April 24th, he constituted an Enquiry Committee consisting of three members of the Governing Board, Mr. Madan Gopal Madabushi, Dr. Anirban Ganguly and Dr. Nirima Oza, as well as former Secretary of the Auroville Foundation Mr. N. Bala Baskar and the then Secretary, Mr. M.V. Chunkath, as convenor, to look into Vikam’s allegations. After the constitution of the Committee had changed – Dr. Anirban Ganguly was not available and was replaced by Prof. Sachinananda Mohanty and Mr. Bala Baskar was unable to attend – the Committee members began their work. Mr. Chunkath relinquished office on June 12th, and from that date onwards was no longer part of the Committee.

The Committee decided to separate the complaints into two parts: (1) those against the Under Secretary Sri Srinivasamurthy and (2) the complaints “consisting of serious allegations on Auroville Foundation, various Trusts, Groups, individual residents including on foreigners.” 

In order to thoroughly analyze the complaint and the documents submitted, and also understand the various complex issues raised, the Committee gave opportunity to both the Under Secretary and Vikram to explain their views in person. 

Regarding the allegations against the Under Secretary, the Committee concluded that “he cannot be directly held responsible for alleged mismanagement and other allegations of various trusts, working groups and of specific individuals. As the Under Secretary is one of the functionaries in the office of the Auroville Foundation and also has no independent powers, it is beyond his reach to influence any alleged wrong decisions as cited in the complaint.” In the light of these circumstances, the Committee exonerated the Under Secretary from all the charges levelled at him in this specific instance.

Regarding the second set of complaints, which included “encroachment, embezzlement of donations, benami properties, money laundering, round tripping of black money, encroachment of government lands, squandering of government grants by foreign nationals” and a host more including “foreigners who are anti-India and anti-government, economic frauds, visa falsification and drug abuse,” the Committee gave opportunity to Vikram to elaborate and substantiate his allegations. 

After analysis of the complaint, the Committee observed that the allegations cover the violation of various laws which it enumerated. It stated that it was neither technically equipped nor professionally trained to address the issues raised in the complaint comprehensively and that it did not have the “wherewithal and required manpower / mechanism to wade through the complex web of events, happenings and unravel the truth.” It concluded that it is convinced that there is a prima facie case for investigation and recommended “unanimously and strongly” that the entire matter be handed over to one or more appropriate central agencies “in order to unravel the complex web of incidents, ostensible criminal in nature”. 

The Enquiry Report of the Committee, dated June 28th, was discussed in a special meeting of the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation on August 26th, the minutes of which were not shared with the Auroville residents. The Governing Board decided to send the Enquiry Report with all proceedings and enclosures to the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

A secret report

Both Vikram and the Working Committee of the Residents’ Assembly of the Auroville Foundation were kept in the dark. Their requests for a copy of the report were not granted; neither were they otherwise informed about the content of the recommendations or the fact that the report had been sent to the HRD Ministry. 

Vikram didn’t take this lying down. After approaching the High Court to order the Foundation to give him a copy of the report – the court denied the request – he filed another RTI application to the HRD Ministry. This time he was successful. The Ministry sent him a copy of the 28-page report and of the 670 pages additional documents which the Ministry had received from the Auroville Foundation. Vikram promptly shared the report with many Auroville residents and working groups. He also started the website The Auroville Files, which details his allegations about the wrongdoings in Auroville. 

The protests were predictable. The Working Committee wrote to the Board objecting that it had to receive a copy of the report from Vikram, the accuser, and not from the Board. “Our objection is even stronger as the Enquiry Committee has concluded that there is a prima facie case that requires the entire matter to be handed over to an appropriate Central Agency,” the Working Committee wrote. “We would have appreciated it if the Board would have informed and addressed these issues with the Residents’ Assembly.” The Working Committee requested the Board to publish the report on the Auronet, so as to keep the Residents’ Assembly informed. No reply to this email was received. 

The community response

But the outcry of the community was unprecedented. The Residents’ Assembly Revival Group called for a Pour Tous (For All) meeting on December 2nd to discuss the matter. “This is a time we need to come together as Auroville as a whole. It requires all of us to take our responsibilities and take action. We need to find solutions to this grave situation together. We can no longer turn our eyes away or put our heads under the sand. Nor can we each do our own thing in our corners. We have to come together. We have to respond seriously to these allegations, expose what is unjustified and incorrect, and take responsibility where the accusations are true. We have to discuss what to do.” The Residents’ Assembly Revival Goup requested all offices, units, playgrounds, shops, centres, schools, eating places, etc., to be closed from 4 pm that day to enable all Aurovilians to attend the meeting.

The meeting, which drew more than 700 people, denounced the incompleteness of the Enquiry Report as the Committee had come to its conclusions without even seeking the views of any of the former Secretaries of the Auroville Foundation, nor of Auroville working groups such as the Working Committee and Funds and Assets Management Committee, and none of those who had been accused by name. Why had the Under Secretary been given opportunity to respond and no one else? The decision of the Board to send the report to the Ministry requesting it initiate an enquiry was also severely criticised. If the Enquiry Committee does not want to investigate these allegations, we’ll do it ourselves, was the conclusion. And, on the spot, a Task Force was formed to do this work. The Task Force is expected to present its findings to a meeting of the Residents’ Assembly, after which it will be sent to the Governing Board, ideally before its meeting on January 24th-25th, and to the HRD Ministry.

The internal feuds

Aurovilians have always been known to hold strong views and harmonising them is an uphill battle. In the words of former Governing Board member Ameeta Mehra, “In Auroville, the first thing you meet when you want to do something is somebody who disagrees and wants to oppose you.”

While there is nothing wrong with people voicing their views, the decision of some of them to email them to people outside Auroville, including members of the Governing Board, as well as airing them on Auroville’s internal website the Auronet, has become problematic, the more so when the views include strong-worded accusations against other Auroville residents. 

Of course, every Auroville resident has the right to approach the Board with the request to settle a grievance. But this also shows the failure of the community’s aspiration to settle disputes internally. Alan, one of the editors of Auroville Today, wrote about this on the Auronet. [see Appealing to Authority in this issue].

The difficulty of posting one’s grievances on the Auronet is that the Auronet is far from ‘internal’. Many outsiders have access, including those who use the opinions voiced to attack Auroville. 

But stronger reasons can be found in one of the letters of Sri Aurobindo, where he wrote about the psychic self-control desirable in meetings. [see box below]. His advice is equally valid for those who publish their views on the Auronet, or freely email their views to all around. It is to be hoped that the community will soon agree on some sort of Auronet moderation.

Why are some Aurovilians so harsh in denunciating others? One reason is that “the other” is not seen to be adhering to the ideals of Auroville. Another is dissatisfaction that a working group does not take action against an offender as wished by the accuser but there may be many reasons for this. Members of the Working Committee and Auroville Council often spend long afternoons trying to harmonize those with differences, but sometimes to no avail. 

All this is food for those who wish to show to the world how poorly Auroville has developed. But is this truly so? Auroville has always been a complex place to understand. And while clearly there are areas in which we need to improve, perhaps the present challenges are stepping stones on the way to a better tomorrow. Is there a truth behind the force of falsehood? Dyvanshi writes that there is.

Auroville has been through difficult times before and we’ll certainly get out of this, but only if we increasingly work together in a spirit of mutual trust.