Transparency is essential in our electronic age

Editing Aurobindo A Catch in the Code

I’d like to clarify a few things that appeared in Editing Aurobindo (March 15). As president of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Beneficiaries Association, I had been airing grievances in public for which the ashram trust formed an enquiry committee and issued a showcause notice wherein I was "charged for not abiding by a certain basic code of conduct evolved by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother". Among other things, that code enjoined that "nothing should be sent out for publication without having been first submitted to Sri Aurobindo for approval" and that "nothing should be spoken to outsiders about what passes in the Ashram without the special permission from the Mother".

The case is now sub judice in the IIIrd Additional District Munsif’s court which I’ve approached. However, I’d like to point out that by speaking to the press, trustee Dilip Dutta and the Americans in charge of the archives have violated this code of conduct. Transparency is essential in our electronic age, but trustees who try to quote a code of conduct next to impossible to apply in life must set an example by observing it themselves. Otherwise they can only be like Satan quoting the scriptures. D. Kamal Dora, Pondicherry www.outlookindia.com Published Mar 29, 1999