Authenticity of letter from ‘anti-Ashram’ MPs in serious doubt

About a year ago, Sraddhalu Ranade, Raman Reddy, R.Y. Deshpande & Co had broken the news on their website that “Members of Parliament Seek Clarifications from Ashram Trustees.” On their website, they reproduced a copy of the letter from the Members of Parliament (MPs) to the Ashram Trust, containing the signatures of 67 MPs.

A year after that, a raging controversy in India over another (unrelated) letter that was recently signed by about an intriguingly equivalent number of MPs, 64 of them, with many MPs disowning that letter, even alleging that their signatures were forged, has led some former students of the S.A.I.C.E. to revisit and examine the letter of the MPs that Sraddhalu & Co have produced on their website.

A copy of the signatures from Sraddhalu & Co’s website is given below (white bands across the signatures were present on the copy produced by Sraddhalu & Co).

What does the keen observer find?

VERY, very surprisingly, the signatures of Shri Ijyaraj Singh and Shri Mahesh Joshi appear twice!!!

The signature of Shri Ijyaraj Singh appears as the 12th and 66^th signature.

The signature of Shri Mahesh Joshi appears as the 10th and 64^th signature.

Additionally, in a stranger coincidence, both the duplicate signatures are paired up.

This raises several interesting questions:

1)      How often does it happen to anyone to sign the same letter or petition twice?

2)      How often does it happen to two different, independent people, to make the same, identical mistake of signing the same letter or petition twice???

3)      The only explanation for someone to sign the same letter or petition twice is if that person does not know what he is signing. In that case, if a signatory does not know what he is signing, does this letter or petition that bears a signature (true or false) have any significance at all? Additionally, if this happens twice, what does it show?

4)      This letter was sent by these MPs to the Ashram Trust. How did SR & Co get a copy of this letter? Do they have a mole in the Trust that leaked them a copy of this letter? Very unlikely.

5)      Then why would the MPs give SR & Co a copy of their letter as they are in no position to respond or act on behalf of the Trust?

6)      The next question therefore is how do SR & Co have a copy of the letter from these MPs containing duplicate signatures? Or did SR & Co have it all along even before the MPs ever saw it?

7)      The final question is do the MPs whose signature appears on this letter know that their signature has been fixed on this letter and do they also have a copy of this letter?

8)    The Ashram had promptly responded to all the MPs. Why are the MPs and Sraddhalu & Co now completely mum about this letter?

We invite Sraddhalu, Sridharan, Sricharan, Raman, Deshpande & Co to provide a clarification on these questions on our website.

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– Well-wishers of Sri Aurobindo Ashram –