Raj TV programme in Tamil on Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust on 23 December, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA105IeqmGc

Summary in English of Koppium Raj TV programme on Sri Aurobindo Ashram on 23 December, 2014:

Political parties’ stage demonstration in Puducherry

THE HINDU

PUDUCHERRY, December 25, 2014

Left parties and VCK stage a joint stir in front of the Head Post Office in Puducherry on Wednesday. Photo: T. Singaravelou

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Protestors want Union government to pass legislation and take over administration of Ashram.

Ashram Showroom, Guest House come under Attack

The New Indian Express

Chennai, Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Oriya Nilayam Guest House

No one was injured in the attacks on Splendour Auroservice and Oriya Nilayam

Tribute to the departed mother and two sisters

Tribute to mother Shanthi Devi and sisters Arunashri and Rajyashri for fighting against the misdeeds of the Ashram Trust (at the Gandhi Statue on the Beach Road, Pondicherry, on 22 December, 2014)

BJP, Congress Seek Probe into Ashram Affairs

The New Indian Express Service

Published: 22nd December 2014 06:02 AM

PUDUCHERRY: The local unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sought a judicial probe into the allegations of sexual harassment and other irregularities in Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

BJP President M Visweswaran said violence and damage to property of Sri Aurobindo Ashram was not the reply to the charges levelled against  Ashram management by the sisters who were evicted. It is the duty of the Ashram, which is of international repute, to safeguard itself against irregularities.

Photographs of the Bandh on 20 December, 2014

Youth Congress Protesting in front of the Pondicherry Assembly

Pondicherry Railway Station

Pondicherry Bus Stand

Market Area

Bandh affects normal life in Puducherry

The Hindu

PUDUCHERRY, December 20, 2014

Updated: December 20, 2014 13:35 IST

Normal life was affected in the city on Saturday due to the dawn-to-dusk bandh called by various outfits and political parties demanding that the Union and Puducherry governments take over the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in the wake of two evicted sisters and their mother killing themselves.

The normally bustling Puducherry bus stand wore a deserted look as all private and government buses kept off the roads.

Left Parties to launch separate agitation

The Hindu 20 December, 2014

Special Correspondent

Left parties on Friday announced that they would observe bandh separately on Saturday here demanding that the government bring a special enactment for keeping Aurobindo Ashram Trust and its Society under control.

Leaders of Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI(Marxist-Leninist) Revolutionary Socialist Party, and All India Forward Bloc discussed various issues including the death of three women who were expelled from Ashram.

Congress to extend support to today’s bandh

The Hindu

20 December, 2014

R. Sivaraman

The main opposition Congress party on Friday extended its support to the bandh call given by political outfits and social organisations. They have called for the dawn-to-dusk bandh on December 20 demanding that the Union and Puducherry governments take over Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

Talking to reporters, Leader of Opposition and senior Congress Leader V.Vaithilingam said his party would extend full support to the bandh.

He said, “The death of three women has shocked the people. Even illegal encroachers would be evicted only after providing alternative accommodation to them. The sisters were evicted without providing any alternative accommodation.”

Agitation still rocks Puducherry on Ashram issue

The Hindu   20 December, 2014

Residents of Vazhaikulam protesting before Ambabhikshu Apartments

Photo: T. Singaravelou

Trustees held responsible for death of 3 women

Bandh tomorrow for govt. takeover of ashram

The Hindu

December 19, 2014

Puducherry sisters’ death

A host of outfits and civil society organisations have called for a dawn-to-dusk bandh on December 20 demanding that the Union and Puducherry governments should intervene and take over Sri Aurobindo Ashram. A decision to this effect was taken at a joint meeting here on Thursday.

G. Sugumaran, secretary, Federation for Peoples Rights (FPR), said the Central government should intervene and appoint a senior IAS official to look after the administration of the Ashram.

Aurobindo Ashram Turns Inhuman, Evicts Family from Earth

MF Monitor

December 18, 2014

Established in Pondicherry by Sri Aurobindo on 24 November 1926, the Aurobindo Ashram turned into a villain to a family of seven in less than a century.

A 2002 case involving the Ashram and the five sisters in a long-drawn legal battle ended on Dec. 9 with a Supreme Court direction to get the sisters thrown out within 7 days from the Ambabhikshu House.

The five hapless sisters had submitted a joint letter to the Trustees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram on December 15 that they would end their lives if forced to leave.

Tension prevails in Pondy

The Times of India

Tension prevails in Pondy after three of a family commit suicide; protesters attack Aurobindo Ashram

Bosco Dominique,TNN | Dec 18, 2014, 03.39 PM IST

Sisters evicted from Aurobindo Ashram: Three including mother commit suicide

ABP Live

PTI

Thursday, 18 December 2014 02:47 PM

Puducherry:  An entire family - five sisters and their parents - jumped into the sea here this morning, a day after they were evicted from the famous Aurobindo Ashram.

Two of the young women and their mother have died, the police said, while the father and three other daughters were rescued by fishermen and have been hospitalized.

The family is from Bihar. The five sisters had been staying in the residential part of the Aurobindo Ashram for several years; their parents lived near-by.

The trust that runs the ashram had 10 years ago accused one of the sisters of misconduct.  Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the trust and said the sisters should vacate their rooms within a week; if they refused, the court said, the police should evict them.

Yesterday, they warned to kill themselves if they were moved out, but later were escorted out by the police after extensive talks.

http://www.abplive.in/india/2014/12/18/article457316.ece/Sisters-evicted-from-Aurobindo-Ashram--Three-including-mother-commit-suicide

Quo Vadis? by Sampdas – Response to Ritwik Banerjee

Apropos “An Earnest Appeal” by Shri Ritwik Banerjee, let it be noted that there are disciples and devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother – both within the Pondicherry outfit and outside – who are very much perturbed by the manner in which the Masters are denigrated by a handful of influential persons, possibly encouraged and egged on to such vicious efforts by those who are close to the Trustees of the Ashram. On the other hand, the silent majority are perhaps hapless witnesses to it – counting their day to day rations – since they have no other go if they are thrown out of the Ashram. The junta that rules now has the leverage to muzzle dissent into submission by denying food and medical facilities to those who owe allegiance to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, and who dare to protest against atrocities not only against human beings but against the Divine as well. The protestors on the other hand appear to have been carrying on their crusade as a sacred duty to ensure that the Masters are not denigrated in the very Ashram which bears the name of the Pioneers of the New Age.

There are many like me who share the concern for the need to cure this festering wound in time so that it does not become a gangrene threatening the very fundamentals of the spiritual endeavour of sincere disciples and devotees.

An Earnest Appeal – by Ritwik Banerjee

Dear Sir & Madam,

I don't know who or who has not has read the last mail/forwards on the subject. Even a single response on any point can ensure some peace of mind to its sender. Kindly let all Aurobindonians know your response thereby on the following counts:

1) Are The Golden Chain Fraternity & its work maintained by Ashram in any manner?

2) What are its goal & agenda?

3) Do you agree with a biography of the Master published in 2008 by the Columbia University Press? Was it warranted?

4) Don't you think its author has spent four decades in the Ashram with you in some way betraying the Ashram?

On Manoj Das’s Clarification with Regard to the Seashore Chit Fund Scam – by an Inmate of the Ashram

We, the devotees of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo in Odisha, read on 28.10.2014 in the Odiya dailies about Shri Manoj Das’s clarification “Kinchit hatachakita jane lekhakara prashna o pratibedana” [a befuddled writer’s question and submission] regarding his involvement with the scam-tainted Seashore Chit Fund. Since we feel sorry for such a famous writer like him getting involved in such dubious money matters, and as we found some discrepancies in the submission of his position to the dailies, we request him to provide further clarifications. Besides, since we are associated with Sri Aurobindo Ashram for a long time, the magical word craft of Shri Manoj Das cannot sway us enough to lose sight of the reality staring at us.

Here are the following discrepancies: -

More Facts on the Domestic Bills of Ashram Aristocrats — by An Irrational Ashramite

Fact 1: The Trust provided a measly allowance for engaging domestic workers only to Ashramites permitted by the Mother or by any Managing Trustee. Not to each inmate as Bireshwar unwittingly put it (see this post); e.g. among those deserving it but who were denied, is a 60+ year old whose arthritic hands don’t let him to wash his clothes.

The term ‘inmate’ craftily legitimised by the present Trust Board is another can of worms – it covers the full, half, quarter, and occasional ‘inmate’!

Fact 2: First, the Trust blamed its sudden “dire need of funds” on the Government for forcing it to decriminalize its allowance partly built on the pretext: “Most domestics are fat and irregular, hence well-off”. Sly as ever, it sweet-talked the unworldly inmates to “voluntarily reduce” their allowances, then capriciously hacked it – “often despite the inmate’s old age infirmities” as Bireshwar says.