By VikramRam
The current state of affairs in Auroville has seen many Aurovilians, mostly foreigners in India, protesting against the Government of India over the implementation of the Masterplan. The Masterplan for the Auroville Township was notified in the Gazette of India in 2010. However, it has yet to be implemented under the garb of one excuse or another. The current excuse that has been put forth, is that the Crown Road which is to be laid encircling the Matrimandir, while occupying merely 0.36% of the entire Masterplan, would mean the felling of some trees (now evidence has emerged that they were purposefully planted on the zones marked for future roads, as well as unauthorised structures such as the Youth center build on the RoW).
Therefore environmental concerns had been raised with the NGT. Citing this excuse many factions in Auroville have now for months been protesting against the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation against implementing the long pending and much overdue Masterplan. On the surface it might all sound rather simple, however on scratching a little under the surface, the true sinister purpose for not allowing the Government of India any footing into the daily affairs and governance is the real reason behind them.
The true and far more sinister reasons lie behind closed closets, as many of the Aurovilians who are involved in spearheading the protests and the countless frivolous court cases, are the key players who have some very personal and vested interest in keeping the Auroville Foundation's Secretariat's office as far away as possible and paralyzed from undertaking any daily governance and administrative matters. As many of their darker deeds from past decades would surface through investigations and come tumbling out of the closet. The idea therefore is to at any cost to not allow for any central agencies to probe into the matters of Auroville. To help understand the context a little better, a short history lesson to recap.
In 1983 an ordinance was imposed to bring a halt to the infighting of trustees on the assets of Auroville. Subsequent to the Emergency Act, the Auroville Foundation Act (1988) was enacted and many provisions were included to consolidate all assets and accounts of Auroville, in the vision of the Charter as laid down by the Mother (Mirra Alfassa). Far from the original vision and charter of Auroville, the current day Auroville is a town full of crimes and criminals; Aurovillians have become a law unto themselves and believe they are most certainly not accountable to the laws of the land or to the Government of India.
The Auroville of today shelters pedophiles, criminals, gang-related activities and economic offenders. Through undue enrichment of personal wealth, ill-gained wealth from donation frauds, tax frauds, several rackets are run - mafia style. Land and real estate frauds through hawala and money laundering also abound. Drug peddling, prostitution, blatant visa violations and suicides, drug abuse, illegal rave parties have become a daily occurrence. Not only did Aurovilians indulge in criminal economic offenses amassing huge personal wealth, but also harassed and threatened many residents of Auroville who dare speak up and question. It is incredibly unfortunate that Auroville had been granted many special privileges and exemption by the Income Tax Department but have only been grossly abused over the decades by the now rich and powerful who seem to have made friends with many in Delhi in the corridors of power. Land mafia criminal gangs have mushroomed in and around Auroville due to the non-implementation of the Masterplan for which donors across the world have poured donations. Such anti-social elements and gangs have made their way to Auroville, as murders in broad daylight on Auroville main road between gang members over land and property have become frequent. Several Aurovilians and public officers are also involved in this criminal nexus, controlling the media, and local police as well.
Seeing the rut in Auroville, a Friend of Auroville, VikramRam out of sheer interest in the vision of Auroville brought these infractions and many supporting documents to the previous Governing Board, headed by Dr. Karan Singh. The Chairman appointed an Enquiry Committee to look into the infractions and the Governing Board. After a thorough vetting of the detailed documents provided, opined the entire matter to be given to a central investigative agency including CBI, ED, NCB, IT & NIA to investigate and probe various serious unlawful and illegal matters. This report was submitted to the Ministry of HRD ( now Ministry of Education ) for action in September 2019, which has since been in cold storage.
The then Governing Board also appointed 3 committees to look into land assets, economics, and human rights violations which were outright rejected by the Resident Assembly Service. The Resident Assembly also did a RA Revival exercise, although since the kingpins were spearheading the same, many Aurovilians were intimidated and in the fear of losing housing, visas, and livelihood kept silent. The Governing Board also cited that any such answers from the Resident Assembly Service should be placed in front of the Resident Assembly and the Board for review, although a report was sent to the Ministry of Education called Light for All, this despite the fact that the RAS was not a statutory investigative body with any means to conduct any such expansive and detailed investigation. The said report was then scuttled off, as many actions of the then Chairman of Auroville show-cause that to ensure his transgressions don’t surface, therefore it resulted with an immediate closure of the report without any investigation whatsoever!
The complainant then labored to dig deeper into affairs in Auroville, through his own and personal sources and made a website – The Auroville Files ( www.aurovillefiles.in ) to expose the true Auroville to the world. It followed current affairs, as it happened and many documents have since surfaced and been shared by many Aurovillians discreetly so that no harm came to them. Through these documents many complaints were provided along with evidence to the Central Vigilance Commission, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and even to the President of India. Around 43 RTIs were filed to various departments, 31 to the Auroville Foundation. The Under Secretary evaded answering many of the RTIs to protect the mafia and the rich, even after the Central Information Commission issued a warning to the PIO.
During the lockdown, while the world was busy fighting the pandemic, in Auroville the Under Secretary and Auroville businessmen were trying to legitimize ill-gained wealth, during which two public gazettes were also passed without the knowledge of the Resident Assembly nor the Governing Board. And in more recent times fresh evidence of a French journalist has surfaced lobbying with the Director of NIA, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, and Home Secretary to seek closure on the enquiry committee report and for visas for those accused of flying a glider over secured areas, trafficking drugs, and being involved in other serious crimes.
The current Secretary of the Auroville Foundation, as soon as she took charge in 2021 and on the recommendation of the previous Governing Board's reports requested for a central agency investigation to look into matters as the Auroville Foundation did not have the means to conduct such investigations on its own. But this measure was met with furious resistance through many frivolous court cases challenging the authority of the Auroville Foundation and the ACT.
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A Forensic and electronic audit was announced although the reports are yet to be submitted.
An anti govt and anti nationalistic sentiment has been on the rise in Auroville, so much so that there have open calls the liberate Auroville from India and declare it a nation of it's own. The Aurovillians have come to believe they are a law unto themselves, above any form of accountability for any of their economic offences, hawala, money laundering, drug trafficking and real estate mafias and business tycoons run the Auroville of today and pull all the strings.
From the recent occurrences, it is clear that Auroville has gone as far away as possible from the true ideals the Mother had envisioned for it; and before any further damage is done, the time to reset and to get back to abiding with its Charter is now! Only by the eviction of powerful Aurovilians who are involved in such activities for years, will Auroville truly emerge as the City of Dawn.
The Government of India should investigate and probe all matters thoroughly by competent agencies and in the interim must take over all administrative affairs in Auroville, and follow the law of the land to truly restore the spiritual legacy of Sri Aurobindo & the Mother.The Government of India is duty bound to uphold the Constitution of India, and administer law of the land.
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Contact: VikramRam
Email: theaurovillefiles@gmail.com
+918270710313
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