An article titled “A case for the organic, harmonious growth of Auroville” by François Gautier published by The Hindu today, the 15th of November 2024, has called for the inclusion of at least two senior Auroville residents in the Governing Board of Auroville. On his meeting with the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Shri R.N. Ravi, as suggested by the Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah, when he and members of RA WCom met the minister at his residence in New Delhi three weeks ago, he writes, “Mr. Ravi has chosen not to listen to our pleas, even though it has been calculated that at least six of these unofficial land exchanges incurred a loss of around ₹250 crore to Auroville”.
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| (By Rioter 1 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76831622) |
The article gives an impression as if there were no allegations of corruption in land exchanges before two years ago. Allegations have been made within Auroville for many years, and land exchanges were halted by Secretary Mr. Sharma about 20 years ago and restarted years later.
About the former Secretary Jayanti S. Ravi, François Gautier writes that she “knew the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo” but “was convinced that it was her sacred duty to implement to the letter and with an iron hand the ‘Galaxy’ plan of French architect Roger Anger.” Dr. Jayanti Ravi appeared to believe, as mentioned by the Mother in an Agenda conversation, that Auroville was already built and ready in the subtle plane and would descend, as it was evident from one of the speeches she made after a flag hoisting function at Bharat Nivas.
The Auroville Foundation Act, 1988, writes François, “gave certain powers to the central government but left the management of Auroville to the Residents Assembly, constituted by every adult in Auroville and which is the very foundation stone of the city”.
“For the 50th anniversary of Auroville, in February 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited it and seemed happy with what he saw.”
The article concludes:: “Therefore, in the spirit of ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam, the World is One Family’, the government of Narendra Modi should not stifle its freedom and kill the dream.”