Puducherry, August 6, 2013: The Golden Chain, the alumni fraternity of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education (SAICE), has strongly objected to the government’s move of appointing a nominee to monitor the functioning of Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

A group of around 120 aggrieved inmates of the ashram lodged their displeasure to Ashok Anand, the MLA who raised a calling attention in the recently concluded Puducherry Assembly session, demanding the appointment of an IAS ranked officer to monitor the ashram’s functioning citing complaints against the trustees of the Ashram.

They went to the MLA’s house in Avvai Nagar here to lodge their displeasure over the manner in which he handled the issue without verifying facts with the persons concerned.

They also strongly opposed Chief Minister N. Rangasamy’s statement in the Assembly that the government would soon take a decision on the demand for appointing an IAS officer to monitor the functioning of the Ashram.

According to the ashram’s inmates, Puducherry was considered a spiritual town and the Ashram was its heritage and the current events have deeply disturbed them.

“First of all, the allegations are completely false and baseless. They have not been proved in any court of law. Just because some people are making noise, it does not mean something is wrong. When there is no truth in it and nothing has been found so far, what is the need for appointing an observer? It is not acceptable in any way,” Arindam Das, one of the members of Golden Chain, told The Hindu after meeting the MLA.

The Ashram was an 80-year-old towering institution.

There were 1,200 inmates in the Ashram. If the aggrieved persons had solid evidences, they could certainly seek legal remedies. But they were following illegal methods to spread lies.

Meanwhile, a statement signed by Ram Sehgal, Managing Trustee of the Gold Chain Fraternity, said that the members of ‘The Golden Chain,’ inmates of Sri Aurobindo Ashram and devotees from Puducherry felt that there was a calculated attempt being made by a few disgruntled and misguided members in the community with active help from outside to wrest power from the present board of trustees.

The misguided members, who were a small fraction of the community, have been trying to spread false and malicious information with the sole purpose of bringing disrepute to the Ashram leading to external intervention.

But, so far they have not been able to provide even a shred of evidence to point out foul play.

Source: The Hindu, August 6, 2013