Who bombed the Hilton? (10 page)

‘You know that Baba was imprisoned in India because the bodies of defectors were found,' says Kumar, and then adds, ‘It would be much easier to dispose of such bodies in Australia.'

The subject knows this is an explicit warning and he sets about gradually extricating himself from the sect, being careful not to antagonise them. Months pass until he ceases attending meetings altogether. It is then that Kapil reappears. He wants to know if the subject is still one of them. Of course he is, the subject replies. What does he know about explosives? Enough, he says, as he had had some training in chemistry. Then ensues a conversation about blowing up the Indian High Commission in order to bring about pressure to ‘secure the release' of Baba. The subject, while expressing disapproval for the plot, also — probably wisely — treats the whole thing ‘like a big joke', while he asserts
that ‘he did not believe in achieving ends by such violent means'. He also adds that ‘he felt that the Ananda Marga members were not the sort of people who were capable of such an act'. Indeed he later tells the ASIO agents that ‘he used to laugh about suppositions that the Ananda Marga could carry out bombings and was sure that it would have been a hopeless bungle had they tried'.

The violence in New Zealand in which five Margiis are caught changes his mind. He realises that the bulk of the membership has little idea about the inner workings of the elite. He believes that it can function in such a clandestine manner because it operates behind the respectable façade of a religious charity. Abhiik Kumar is the absolute leader in Australia and:

This tolerance is clearly running short by the end of 1977. As the task force collates its findings, it incorporates an increasing number of reports about the violence targeting Indian nationals coming in from other countries. In August a number of Indian officials are physically attacked in the UK. In October three Margiis are arrested for an attack on Indian nationals in London and attempting to blow up the embassy. The same month in New York there is an attempt to fire-bomb the Air India offices. November brings an explosion in the Indian Embassy in Katmandu and an explosive device thrown at the Indian ambassador's residence in Copenhagen. The New York City Police Department Intelligence Division sends further
reports of an attempt to stab an Air India employee in Los Angeles, and the stabbing of an embassy official (Silla Koteswar, 25) in Washington DC. The NYC police report states:

While the attacks are familiar, it's the astonishing consistency of the denials that begins to sow doubts about the Ananda Marga. It's hard to imagine how a government agency, such as the Indian CBI or the KGB could be so effortlessly adept at coordinating these acts of violence across continents. It's also hard to figure out how it would work logistically. According to the Margiis, an Indian government agent (or KGB agent?) would be operational in (travel to?) a foreign country (the USA, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Australia, etc.)
and then stab, attack, fire-bomb an Indian national — then hurry home (go underground?) to (Russia? India?) at the same time writing up and carefully sending off a letter claiming the violence in the name of the Universal Proutist Revolutionary Federation — all to discredit the Ananda Marga. Whew! Remember this is the Indian Government undertaking an extraordinary clandestine global campaign of terror against its own citizens. It's a lot of time, money and effort, not to mention the potentially catastrophic diplomatic consequences if caught, to devote to ensuring an ex–civil servant heading a minor religious sect stays in jail. Hard to explain, too, are the incidents such as those in London or Australia where identified Margii members are actually caught in the act.

ASIO continues to collect information from former Margiis, who add to a picture of zealotry. One ex–sect member recounts that ‘Abhiik told him in conversation that the end justifies the means. If aims cannot be achieved by peaceful means, then there was no alternative but to use violence. In short, Abhiik considered violence as a means to an end and this apparently alarmed [redacted] and hastened his exit.'
⁸

The seriousness of the threat the Australian Government is feeling is summed up in the secret report compiled for federal Cabinet late in 1977, only a few months before CHOGRM. The report, declassified in 2009, is the findings of the task force, made up of
representatives of the departments of Administrative Affairs, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Foreign Affairs, Education, Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and the Attorney-General, as well as ASIO and the Commonwealth Police — along with responses from state premiers. The report's main purpose is to ‘seek Cabinet endorsement to certain measures to restrict and endeavour to halt the acts and threats of violence … against Indian nationals in Australia'.
⁹

The members of the task force are clearly disturbed by what has occurred over the last five months. Adding to their concern is that:

The task force goes on to assert:

Their opinion is that ‘Proutist organisations are integrated with Ananda Marga, both in relation to their common hierarchy and the advocacy of violent means as evinced by some of their publications'.
¹²
The suspicion is that those who are perpetuating the violence in the name of UPRF are in fact members of Prout operating as a splinter group within Ananda Marga. It is also possible that the bulk of the Ananda Marga membership is unaware of the existence of this splinter group.

What the task force proposes to do seems perplexing at first and rather underwhelming. In order to be ‘consistent in achieving effective governmental action as action by the Immigration and Education authorities, there is a need to terminate formal governmental recognition of Ananda Marga as a recognised denomination for the purposes of the
Marriage Act
'.

The immediate effect of this will be the automatic deregistration of the four existing Margii marriage celebrants as ‘ministers of religion'. It becomes clear that this a highly provocative act. Ananda Marga at that time is not registered as a charity and its only formal recognition as a religion is the licensing of its marriage celebrants. Of the four who are to be deregistered as ministers of religion, only one is named:

The task force members acknowledge that they:

They also recommend that a suspension of all new requests for government support or recognition of Ananda Marga be continued until 31 March 1978 and that ‘in view of the current assessment of the nature of Ananda Marga and in view of the information that they are planning to hold a conference in Sydney from 23 to 29 January next, which will be shortly before a Commonwealth Heads of Government conference in Sydney, the Task Force was of the view' to continue the ban authorising or permitting ‘entry to Australia of foreign members of Ananda Marga or foreign persons actively involved with it'.
¹⁵

While these recommendations may seem draco-nian,
there's a clear sense in the report that they are born out of frustration and a genuine fear of what some elements of this sect may be capable of. Despite vast increases in police protection for Indian officials in Australia, including the visiting Indian cricket team, the report admits that while this is ‘an essential protective action by the government [that] needs to be continued', it ‘does not in itself halt the continuing threat of the violent element within Ananda Marga to attack Indian establishments in Australia'.
¹⁶

There is recognition, too, of the significant legal and human rights problems for the government should they decide to introduce legislation to ban the organisation outright, particularly when that organisation claims to be religious and carries out social welfare work. It is, however, something they are inclined to consider should the pattern of violence continue. In the meantime:

Another recommendation is that officers from the Administrative Services Department and officers from
the Department of Education have talks with the leaders of the Ananda Marga (they note that the public relations officer Tim Anderson has sought this) ‘to discuss with them the problem of the consistent pattern of violence or threats of violence associated with members of the Ananda Marga and the apparent link between a possible UPRF and Ananda Marga'.
¹⁸

They want to put to them:

(i)
The fact that their members have been involved in a consistent world pattern of violence and threats of violence and inviting them to explain how their organisation proposes to control this and to halt further acts and threats of violence; and

(ii)
In light of this fact, how would [they] sustain continuance of applications for education grants and concessions.
¹⁹

It's a neat tactic — predicated on the idea that most of the Margii membership do not condone, and indeed are not aware of, the violent acts of the inner cell of Proutists, and they will have more clout in reining them in than outside forces — particularly if they are concerned that financial assistance, for example supporting the schools their kids go to, is taken away.

As Christmas of 1977 approaches, and with
CHOGRM seven weeks away, the summation of the task force is this:

Of course this is all absolutely hush-hush, but the one decision that does become public knowledge is the banning of foreign members of the sect from entering Australia until after CHOGRM. The task force had been correct to consider the human rights implications of adopting a hard line with the Margiis. The reaction to this compromise decision, falling far short of banning the sect outright, is condemned in an editorial in the
Sydney Morning Herald
:

So, what Norm wants to know is what happened next. Were talks held? Was there more violence? The answer to both is no.