On
the 25th of August 2017 the Pondicherry Police whisked off Manoj Das Gupta in a
Police jeep around 7 a.m. from the Ashram Dining Room, where he had gone to
collect his breakfast. The Police took him to the station for questioning with
regard to the rape of a minor girl by a minor boy committed in the premises of
the Ashram School on 21 July, 2017. Manoj Das Gupta happens to be the Managing
Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the Registrar of the Ashram School, which
is a powerful and influential position to hold in Pondicherry, so it is
extremely surprising that the Police dared to treat him like a common citizen. He
was even made to undergo the utter humiliation of waiting in the Police Station
for two hours and told to come the next day for interrogation. The next day he
was accompanied by Dr. Dilip Datta (Trustee and head of the Ashram Medical
Services) and Matriprasad Satyamurthy (Secretary of the Ashram Trust) to the
Police station. The same week writer Manoj Das (Sahitya Academy award winner
and recipient of Padma Shri) was summoned to Chennai and interrogated by the
Intelligence Bureau. All of a sudden the long delayed karmic hand has caught up
with the actions of this nefarious group of the Ashram and the fortress of
invincibility they had built up in the public domain over the last twenty years
seemed to fall like a house of cards.
Showing posts with label Dilip Datta Dr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dilip Datta Dr. Show all posts
2 Sept 2017
7 Aug 2017
Two Shocking Incidents – Anirjeet
The following post, dated 6 August, 2017 on indiatoday.in with the title “SC rejects plea of woman ‘abused’ at Puducherry’s Aurobindo Ashram” is highly misleading, even going by the report that follows underneath.
On 28 July 2017, Chief Justice Khehar dismissed the impleadment petition of
Hemlata Prasad in the Writ Petition filed by Gayatri Satpathy & Others against
the Ashram Trustees in August 2014 for a number of complaints, including sexual
harassment of minors, death by medical negligence, shady land dealings and other
financial irregularities. The Chief Justice however granted the liberty to
Hemlata Prasad to “initiate proceedings if the applicant is so advised in her
own right”. In other words, the Chief
Justice did not reject her plea of being abused but instructed her to file it
separately on her own. So while the title gives the impression of the Ashram
Trustees coming out clean in the eyes of the Supreme Court, the actual content
of the story should hardly make them comfortable, especially when the Centre (MHA
is a party to the Writ Petition) has “favoured an independent inquiry into
the affairs of the Ashram”.
In the meanwhile two more shocking
incidents have come to light in the Ashram, which should make the Ashram Trustees
literally squirm in their seats and regret why they ever sat on them.
17 Oct 2016
Timeline of the Controversy
1978
Nirmal Singh’s rejoinder to Peter Heehs on the birthplace of Sri
Aurobindo. According to Peter Heehs, Sri Aurobindo was wrong about where he
was born.
12.02.1984
Appointment
of Manoj Das Gupta as Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust after the passing
away of Nolini Kanto Gupta. He was recommended as Trustee by Nolini Kanto
Gupta through a dubious note signed (or made to sign) in his last days and
left in the custody of Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya. We do not know why Nolini
did not give the note to Padmanabhan Counouma, who was then the Managing
Trustee of the Ashram, and why he did not recommend Manoj Das Gupta earlier through
a formal meeting of the Board of Trustees. Manoj Das Gupta’s policy of not
rocking the boat even when the boat is about to be wrecked, as in the controversy
over the Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter
Heehs, makes him undoubtedly the most vehemently criticised Trustee in the
history of the Ashram. He is also known to protect the guilty and punish the
victims or those who have raised the alarm.
|
15 Dec 2015
The Necessity of Proper Procedures in Sri Aurobindo Ashram – by Baikunth
It
is therefore high time that some proper procedures are introduced in the
current administrative setup of the Ashram without, at the same time,
paralysing it with procedures as we see in various Government institutions. It
is true we have made a parody of democracy in our country, but that cannot be a
justification for not introducing basic democratic structures in the Ashram. It
is also true that spirituality and democracy may be incompatible, but in the
present predicament of the Ashram when the Integral Yoga has become an excuse
to enjoy the ordinary life at other people’s expense, it is time to put in
place a few checks and balances on the unlimited powers of the Trustees to
prevent the most arrogant human errors in the name of divine justice. [read full article below]
25 Apr 2015
Sampdas on Jayantilal Parekh’s Article on Sri Aurobindo Ashram
It is
no surprise then that the Wellwishers
of the Ashram Trust, knowing too well which side of the bread is buttered, have
no qualms about keeping quiet when Sri Aurobindo himself is derated, but take
up cudgels and loudspeakers on behalf of the Trustees. The guidepost for them is that those who
question the wrong actions of the Trust are necessarily heretics and their
actions are blasphemous. However, on their part, they are prone to take the
easy path of “we see no wrong, we hear no wrong, we speak no wrong” on the
actions of the Trust. They expect that wrongs against the Divine and sadhaks be
not addressed at all by chanting the rhetoric, “the Trustees can do nothing
wrong and people should accept everything that they do with the non-questioning
maxim of conduct that “thou shalt not think or reason or question the Trustees
even if they are wrong.” Their fundamental fallacy owes to the misplaced
identification of the administrative outfit of the Ashram Trust with the Ashram
itself. [extract – read full article
below]
16 Sept 2014
11 Sept 2014
Sridharan Replies to Matriprasad Satyamurthy on the pro-Ashram Trust Nexus
Refer to the Well-wishers’ posting of August 30, 2014 “The Pro-Ashram Trust
Nexus!” in reply to our “Connecting the Dots between the pro-Ashram Trust Nexus
– Sridharan” (July 28, 2014), which in turn was a reply to the Well-wishers’ “Connecting the
dots between the anti-Ashram nexus” (July 4, 2014).
I will not waste my time with the shameless
jingoism and empty rhetoric of this particular posting on the Well-wishers’ forum, which is mainly due
to the fact that the site is fully backed by the present authorities of the
Ashram. Let me come straight to the distinction between the Sri Aurobindo
Ashram and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust that we have always insisted upon. The
Well-wishers’ forum is so overawed
with the importance of legalities that they seem to forget that the Ashram is
supposed to be a spiritual institution. (This is typical of Matriprasad
Satyamurthy – secretary of the Ashram Trust, who always talks legal when you
want to engage him with spiritual issues. He once told a newcomer to simply
enjoy life at the Ashram instead of trying to practise Yoga!) When did we say
that the Ashram and the Ashram Trust are two different legal entities? The
Trust was of course created by the Mother to take care of the Ashram properties,
but only the Mother is authorised to induct and evict persons from the Ashram.
According to Clause 7 of the Trust Deed, this matter is left to her “absolute
discretion” and no other clause qualifies any other Trustee to undertake this
responsibility in her absence! In fact the Ashram Trust Deed, drafted in 1955
shortly after the de facto transfer of Pondicherry to the Indian Union, is framed
for the period of her lifetime. Even the possibility of her demise is not
mentioned in the Trust Deed and no future contingent arrangements are envisaged
in it with regard to the guidance and administration of the sadhaks of the
Ashram. For more information on this aspect, read the following article posted
on our site. (“Misconceptions about the Ashram Trust Deed.”)
29 Aug 2014
Response to Govardhan Dave – by Sridharan
Govardhan Dave is perhaps at his illogical best in the recent posting of
19 August 2014 on the Well-Wishers’ forum. Logical analysis was never his
strong point, but what concerns me is that he is also an ignoramus on life in
Sri Aurobindo Ashram and on the stormy events that have recently occurred there.
What is more disconcerting is that he proceeds to write a factual analysis of
the controversy with this half-knowledge and with his half-baked mind. This
double deficiency makes him indeed a dangerous disseminator of wrong
information which gullible strangers might readily believe. Hence I will take
the trouble to rebut him instead of dismissing him as a harmless nincompoop who
is being used by the Well-Wishers’ forum to shoot over his shoulders. I quote
below his so-called analysis with my comments below.
22 Aug 2014
Who is Gaining from Legal Battles? – Sridharan
The Well-Wishers
of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Forum is active again. This Forum can be considered
as the unofficial mouthpiece of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust with Matriprasad
Satyamurthy (secretary of the Ashram Trust) and Richard Hartz (controversial
editor of Sri Aurobindo’s publications) hiding behind pseudonyms and spewing
hatred at what they call anti-Ashram elements. Let me remind you once more that
we had made a clear distinction between the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram Trust in our last response to this forum. Therefore the
Ashramites who have filed this “new case” are not against the Ashram but the Ashram
Trust, which runs the Ashram in the most irresponsible manner. Their demand is
to revamp the present administration through a Government intervention without
which no structural changes can be brought about in the governance of the
Ashram. The changes will ensure transparency and accountability, the utter lack
of which is the hallmark of the present setup. The introduction of some democracy
into the highly autocratic functioning of the present Trustees would also be a
welcome measure. All these demands are fundamental to any institution in modern
times and, if the excuse for not conceding to them is that the Ashram is a
spiritual institution and not a secular one, then show me these “highly
spiritual disciples” among the present Trustees who can guide the Ashram to its
spiritual destiny!
23 May 2014
The Supreme Court Verdict on the Five Sisters – Bireshwar Choudhury
Three newspapers (Times of India, New Indian
Express & Deccan Chronicle) have recently reported the adverse judgement delivered on the Five Prasad Sisters by
the Supreme Court of India on the 29th
of April 2014. The sisters have been ordered to vacate their present quarters
in Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, by July 31st. What is however strange is that none of the newspaper
reports mention that the Ashram Trust will have to bear the expenditure of the
Five Sisters staying outside the Ashram premises! The Ashram Trust will have to
pay them a minimum of Rs 29000/ every month (subject to fair review and appeal on account
of inflation and other factors as this amount was fixed by the High Court a
long while ago) for accommodation, food and other basic necessities
of life until the original suit pending in the Pondicherry Court since 2005 has
been disposed of.
22 Apr 2014
The Medical Negligence of Vishnu Lalit – by Bireshwar Choudhury
The
deep-rooted fear that has spread in Sri Aurobindo Ashram is that the Ashram Nursing
Home, headed by Dr. Dilip Datta and Dr Salila Patnaik, provides a one-way
ticket to Heaven. But the journey itself is not so enjoyable considering the
medical trauma that you have to go through: the lack of basic health care, the rude
behaviour of some of the nurses you have to put up with, the frequent
references to Divine Providence by the Chief Medical Officer when he does not
want to spend money on you for referrals to specialists, and finally his
constant exhortation to “Have faith in the Mother” when the patient does not have
enough faith in him as a medical practitioner. The recent case of Vishnu Lalit is one such blatant case
of medical negligence.
16 Feb 2014
The Literary and Literal Manoj Das ― by Sricharan Singh
Has Manoj Das any occult or
spiritual vision of these forces or are these only the products of his fertile
literary brain? In this context, the remark of the respected Odiya sadhak late
Babaji Sri Ramakrishna Das, who had a profound occult vision, is worth
mentioning. About 35 years ago, when a sadhak went for some work to Babaji’s
room near the Ashram, Babaji asked him, “Have you seen who has come to my room
just now?” The sadhak replied, “Yes, I saw Manoj babu was going out.” Then
Babaji told him, “When that person entered my room, I saw a dark force entering
my room.” The sadhak was astonished. But after 35 years he found out how true
was Babaji’s vision! [extract, read full article below]
2 Feb 2014
Dr. Kartikeshwar Patra (ex-M.P. from Balasore) replies to Prof. Manoj Das
(Translation of the Original in Odiya)
Aum Sri Ma
Respected Sir, 20.12.2013
My regards. After receiving
your letter and speaking to you on the phone, I felt inspired to reply to you. Therefore
I thought that first I needed to let you know about a few things. Often one
does not know what the truth is. So one does not hesitate to call the truth a
lie because one tells lies out of fear of society and one even resorts to lies
in the name of God. As Bacon says “Lie faceth God, shrinketh from mankind”.
Your letter is coloured with lies in order to shake my conviction. Therefore,
once again I appeal to you, please tell me – those who are revengeful towards
others, are they real sadhaks? You have not answered this question. Why have
they refused to put me up in the Ashram guest-houses? This too you have not
answered. What offence have I committed before the trustees?
Prof. Manoj Das writes to Dr. Kartikeswar Patra ― ex-M.P. from Balasore
(Translation of the Original in Odiya)
Dear
Shriman Kartikeshwar-babu, 13.11.2013
Namaskar,
That day I was very pleased to
have spoken to you over the phone. Of all our conversations that day the song
that you sang without preparation struck in my ears and rang for a long time.
Most political figures usually lose interest in such subtle and refined pursuits.
But you are an exception, therefore my congratulations.
This is a personal letter. I
leave for Goa tomorrow in the morning and will be back on the 16th.
I am writing a short note in case of any delay. I have no interest in arguing
with anyone. I have looked upon you with affection since your student days.
29 Nov 2013
Response to Auroville Today Report on Ashram Affairs (1) ― Sridharan
The Auroville
Today report on Ashram affairs in the issue of October, 2013 is a
“thoroughly researched” (!) presentation of facts by a lawyer who has been
given the job of defending the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. He has therefore necessarily
presented only one side of the story and has left out all the
events and documents that are not compatible with his whitewashed picture of
the Ashram Trust. The foundation of his thesis is predetermined: the Trustees
are angels fallen from the sky and those who are protesting against them are
hostile forces attacking the Mother’s work. In that case, Auroville should also
be considered as part of that falsehood because the Mother had originally given
the task of building Auroville to Sri Aurobindo Society and not to those who
rebelled against it and brought about a Govt. intervention! Navajat Poddar has indeed
been so much demonised by Aurovillians that I would now like to believe that he
was the Mother’s instrument! Why don’t the Aurovillians don’t even mention him
as the man who first proposed Auroville to the Mother, who then used him as an
instrument to execute it? It is high time that he should be given due credit
for his role.
I will quote below some of the salient passages in the
Auroville Today report and give my
response.
6 Sept 2013
Sridharan Replies to Arindam Das of SAICE Forum
There
are about half a dozen members of the SAICE forum who always take centre stage whenever
somebody dares to say anything against the present Ashram Trustees. These are
stooges of the Trustees with their own vested interests, who pour venom and
vitriol on their target far beyond the range of normal human decency, while the
other members of the SAICE forum silently (and shamelessly) watch the
pyrotechnics of the show. Their vicious attack on Dr. Gayatri for her bold and sincere letter to all the devotees and disciples of the Mother was therefore
expected. The attack only proves that the letter was good, perhaps excellent,
and had the potential danger of bringing clarity to the confused minds of
the Ashramites, for the Ashram Trustees would certainly like them to be in a
permanent state of confusion. The last big event on this forum opened with a
long and boring diatribe of Arindam Das, which was full of conceit and standard
clichés. His colleagues naturally clapped their hands in delight and made more
snide and distasteful remarks on Dr Gayatri. I personally let out a big yawn at
this usual exercise in character assassination, which reminds me of how
children quarrel in middle school. I suppose these students of the Ashram
School have never gone beyond that level. What else can they do! I reproduce
Arindam Das’s hate speech in full and give my reactions and answers to the
various issues he raises.
27 Apr 2013
Fall From Grace? ― Outlook, issue of March 12, 1997
Once
known for its spiritual atmosphere, the Aurobindo Ashram today faces internal
dissent and charges of sexual excesses
By A.S.
PANNEERSELVAN in Pondicherry
The spiritual curtain has lifted on the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. With its net assets over Rs 500 crore, a flourishing business in leather goods, computers and hand-made paper, and a premium on its brand equity, the ashram's spiritual concerns seem to have been abandoned in favour of more materialist pursuits. And now the internal discontent is threatening to spill over outside as a section of its inmates have decided to settle matters in court.
The legal battle has been joined by
political parties and human rights organisations who are demanding a
full-fledged probe into the activities of the ashram. The PMK, the Samata
Party, the Samajwadi Party, both factions of the DK, the BSP, the Dravida
Peravai, the CPI(ML) and the People's Union of Civil Liberties have called for
accountability and democratisation of the insular institution. While the
political parties are interested in the ashram because of its growing economic
clout (it employs about 3,000 people in its various divisions) and its huge
real estate holdings (more than 70 per cent of the old French buildings near
the beach), the discontent within has emerged over the spiritual deviation
that has taken place in the ashram over the last two decades. Labour exploitation,
tax evasion, sexual excesses, sexual violence, paedophilia and laundering of
public funds are some of the crimes the ashram has been accused of
perpetrating.
22 Apr 2013
The Sri Aurobindo Ashram Inmates’ Association – by Bireshwhar Choudhury
It all started in November 1996 when
Bailochan Parida and Narayan Swain formed the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Inmates’
Association in order to protect the interest of the inmates of the Ashram. Things
had sufficiently gone wrong by then to warrant the formation of an association
within a spiritual community. Harikant Patel was the Managing Trustee, Manoj
Das Gupta was next in command though he was the driving force from behind even
then. Parou Patil had died in 1996 making way for Dr Dilip Datta to become a
Trustee and make a mess of the future administration of the Ashram – the legal
harassment of the inmates of the Ashram began with Dr. Dilip Datta.
When the Inmates Association wanted to
register their association, the Puducherry Registrar told them to get a No
Objection certificate from the Ashram Trust. Meanwhile, the Ashram Trust acted
with extreme high-handedness. Four members of the Association, Bailochan Parida,
Srikant Jivarajini, Dilip Agarwal and Kamal Dora, were expelled from the Ashram
in January 1997 because they had dared to form an association. They were immediately
debarred from taking food in the Ashram Dining Room. The henchmen of the Trust then
swung into punitive action. Dilip Agarwal’s room in the Laundry was locked from
outside while he was sleeping inside – he had to escape through the window. Kamal
Dora’s room at the Lake Estate was literally ransacked and his personal belongings
thrown out – a criminal case was filed against those who had raided his room. Srikant
Jivarajani was threatened at his residence and told to vacate the house. Only Bailochan
was spared because he stayed in his own house.
15 Mar 2013
DattaGate: Exposing the Corrupt Trustees of the Ashram!
Dilip Datta’s latest deal is the
most novel so far and suggests how skilfully the Ashram finances and properties
are being diverted and subverted by the Trustees. On the face of it there are two
apparently unconnected events: 1) Ratnadeep Datta and his wife bought another plush
house in Pondicherry, and 2) an Ashramite was assigned a new house in the
Ashram. Nothing strange apparently until you realise that the Ashramite was the
same person who sold the house to Ratnadeep Datta and his wife Jyotsna and that
the sale of the house was at a price far below its market value. Now the
skeletons come tumbling out!
Let us review the sequence of events
as they occurred:
- On 13.13.1974 one Michèle Mercier, a French citizen living in the Ashram, purchased a plot of land of 1800 sq.ft. and later built a large three storeyed building named “Abhiseka” situated at 9, Padmini Thottam, Kuruchikuppam, Puducherry 605012.
- She lived there all of these years even after she was formally admitted into the Ashram as a permanent Inmate. It is a large house, more than sufficient for an entire family to live in, and certainly more than enough for one person. But having no income, and with maintenance costs increasing, she found the house too big to manage.
- In 2009, she approached the Ashram Trustees with the offer to donate the building to the Ashram in exchange for a smaller house closer to the Ashram main building. Instead Dilip Datta allegedly made a counter offer: she could sell the land to his son for a low price, and keep the money while still getting herself premium accommodation assigned from the Ashram! She readily agreed.
- Dr Dilip Datta, head of the Ashram’s medical section, told her that Huta D Hindocha (the Mother’s confidante) was quite ill and would not survive much longer, and promised to assign Michèle her house as soon as she passed away.
- Miraculously and to the great consternation of “Dr Death”, Huta continued to live against all medical odds. Several times she was hospitalised in a private hospital in critical condition, but each time she bounced back miraculously and returned to complete the work assigned to her by the Mother. Throughout, Huta refused to go to the Ashram Nursing Home because of her dangerous experience with Dr Dilip Datta. (A few years earlier, “Dr Death” had wrongly diagnosed her as having pneumonia and gave her heavy doses of wrong medication for three months that broke her health for good. She never recovered from that wrong treatment and refused to have anything to do with Dr Dilip Datta after that.)
- Finally, in early October 2011, under pressure of other doctors of the Ashram, Huta agreed to shift to the Ashram Nursing Home. Once more in the care of “Dr Death”, she did not return alive.
- Even while Huta was receiving treatment in the Nursing Home, Dilip Datta gave the go ahead to his son for purchase of Michèle’s house. But Michèle Mercier had been disappointed too often. She wanted some guarantee for her interests to be protected. What if, she asked, Huta did not die now? What if, after completing the sale, she was not given the house that she wanted? Dilip Datta agreed that she could sell half the house to begin with and transfer the other half after shifting to her Ashram assigned premium accommodation.
- On 12th October 2011, while Huta was struggling for life at the Nursing Home, Michèle Mercier signed the sale deed transferring 50% of the “undivided share” of her property to Dilip Datta’s son Ratnadeep Datta and his wife in a sale deed that is unprecedented and quite anomalous. (More of that later.)
- On 17th November 2011, Huta D Hindocha passed away in the Ashram Nursing Home. According to her Will, her body was brought back to her house and kept on her bed, surrounded by the Mother’s Treasures and her life’s work done under the Mother’s guidance. Dilip Datta and Ratnadeep Datta were not among those who came to see her off.
- A few months later, Michèle came to Huta’s house and demanded that the house be handed over to her. She said, “I have been waiting for this house for the last 5 years!”
So what is wrong with the sale deed
by which Dilip Datta’s family has purchased Michèle’s house? Plenty! This deed
of sale does things no one in her right mind would accept – it binds Michèle to
complete loss of privacy and loss of control of her entire house even while
selling only half of it. It prevents her from selling the other half of her
house to anyone else except Dilip Datta’s family members. It allows Ratnadeep Datta to own the entire house for good while only
paying for half of it and that too at a price well below market rates! Strange,
wouldn’t you say? [extract -- read full article below]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)