Manoj Das
Gupta, the Registrar of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram International Centre of
Education and other members of the School Committee along with their advisers
have been adopting the most crooked means to save themselves from contempt of
Court. This is in reference to Radhikaranjan Das’s case which was filed in
Pondicherry Court last year in June 2012. The Registrar and the School Committee
know too well that the verdict of the case was in Radhikaranjan’s favour, that
is, to completely restore his classes in the Ashram School. The Court Order had
created fear in the mind of the Registrar as there was already a contempt of
Court pending in his name. The Court had passed an Order in December 2012 not
to stop Radhikaranjan’s classes, which the Registrar had blatantly disobeyed. He
knew the consequences of a violation of a Court Order, so he wanted to create a
false impression of having complied with it in the school session starting on
16 December, 2012. He gave Radhikaranjan a note telling him to fix his classes
with the Higher Course students and yet prevented him from taking any classes.
How did he do it?
In the
Higher Course of the Ashram School, the students have the freedom to choose their
teachers, the subjects and the number of periods they would like to study with
them. Usually the teachers are given an appointment time to meet the students.
The students see the names of the teachers in the Teachers' List and fix up
their timetables after meeting them. The final verdict of the Court was passed last
year on the 5th of December 2012. On the 7th of December,
the Higher Course Authority, Miss Jhumur Bhattacharya, included Radhikaranjan’s
name in the Higher Course Teachers’ List and sent a written communication to
him stating that he can go and fix his time table with the students on the 17th
of December at 3 pm. But on the 10th of December, his name was
struck off from the list and a second communication was despatched to
him stating that the meeting with the students was cancelled (note that the
word was 'cancelled' and not 'postponed') and that he would be intimated later.
On the 14th of December another letter written and signed by the Registrar
was sent to him stating that he may follow the instructions as stated in the first
communication and go ahead and fix his time table with the students on the 17th
of December.
Radhikaranjan
went on the 17th of December at the appointed time, but he saw that his name
was not there in the Higher Course Teachers' List. Naturally the students wouldn't
and couldn't come to meet him and fix up their classes as he was not listed in
the Higher Course Teachers' List. The Registrar’s crooked plan was that
Radhikaranjan would naively go to the Higher Course Building, sit there waiting
for students to come, and when none would turn up, he would leave thinking that
no one wishes to study with him. But when Radhikaranjan didn’t find his name in
the Teachers’ List, he went to the Higher Course Office and asked the staff
as to why his name was not included in it. He was then told by the office
assistant that his name had been included on the 7th of December but
deleted on the 10th of December. Then on the 19th of
December after the class fixing was done, his name had been added by hand with
a pen on the Higher Course Teachers' List.
By this deceitful
act the Registrar created the false impression of having complied with the Court
Order. He would be able to say that he did give Radhikaranjan a chance to fix
up his classes with the students, but that the students did not choose him as a
teacher. But Radhikaranjan’s classes in the Higher Course are only a minor
portion of his full time table. The major portion of his classes had been in the
lower classes of the School, which had been intentionally overlooked. As none
of these classes had been assigned to him, there was still a violation of the
Court Order. This is the kind of crookedness that is being practised by the Registrar
and the School Committee in the Ashram School where Sri Aurobindo wanted
straightforwardness:
The children
should be helped to grow up into straightforward, frank, upright and honourable
human beings ready to develop into divine nature.
Sri
Aurobindo
This message
is printed on the cover of the institution's notebooks. Unfortunately the very
opposite of straightforwardness is being practised by the present authorities
of the Ashram School.
This time, in
the present academic session of 2013-14, due to the pressure of the ongoing Enquiry
on the Ashram Trustees, the Registrar, thought of a similar plan in order to
throw dust in the eyes of the Enquiry Officer. He took advantage of the fact
that the number of Sanskrit students at the Higher Course level had drastically
diminished due to his outright hostility to the teaching of Sanskrit in the Ashram
School. Like last year Radhikaranjan was directed through a written note to fix
his Sanskrit classes with the students of the Higher Course. This time his name
was not deleted from the Teachers’ List, but as there were so few Sanskrit
students at the Higher Course level that Radhikaranjan did not get any students.
This has once again enabled the Registrar to create a false record of restoring
Radhikaranjan’s classes without actually letting him teach in the Ashram School!
Later two
students of the Higher Course met Radhikaranjan after school hours and requested
him to teach Sanskrit to them. They said they would meet him the next day in
the Higher Course premises, but the following day, when Radhikaranjan went to
the appointed place, the students didn’t show up. This obviously shows that
they had been in some way threatened with unpleasant consequences and were
prevented from attending his classes. As for Radhikaranjan’s classes at the school
level, the Registrar said, “About his classes in the school, we will see
later.” Radhikaranjan used to take twenty-five periods in the school and four
periods in the Higher Course. Now he has not a single class thanks to the
manipulations of the Registrar, who allows him to teach where there are no
students and debars him from teaching where there are so many students that
there is a shortage of teachers!
Let this
crookedness of the Registrar of the Ashram School be known to one and all!
Banamali Mishra
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