’India not behind ban on cult’

Press, 16 January 1978, Page 2

’India not behind ban on cult’

NZPA Canberra The Indian High Commis-j sioner in Australia (Mr J. Ajmani) said in Canberra on I Saturday that neither his Government nor his office: had sought the Australian immigration ban, announced( on Friday, on members ofi the India-based sect, Anandal Marga. But Mr Ajmani said the, Commission had information I implicating the sect in every} act of violence against the Indian Government in Aus-1 An Oamaru grandmother, I Mrs Dagmar Carson, was refused entry to Australia on landing at Tullamarine air-} port on Friday. Mr. Carson was caught up in the ban on members and. -jpporters of Ananda Marga.l The ban will remain in force 1 pending inquiries into the; sect’s activities. Mrs Carson, aged 64, hast been a supporter of the group, although not a very} active one, for the last three; years. She planned to visit her daughter, Mrs K. Whitehead, of Melbourne, for two! weeks before going on to a, meditation retreat of the movement in Sydney for a She saw neither her daughter, whom she had not seen for more than two years, nor her two granddaughters. Mrs Carson said she was not allowed out of the room in which she was detained. Her planned threeweek visit to Australia lasted only an hour and 20 minutes.

‘I could hardly believe it; it was a bit of a shock,” Mrs Carson said, when asked her first reaction on being told she could not enter Australia. "There was no doubt in my mind that I could not visit Australia,” she said. "It never occurred to me to inquire before I left. There was no doubt in my mind that I could not come and go between the two countries.” Mrs Carson said she had| not been told before she left! New Zealand of any possible! prohibition on her entry to j Australia. The reason given for her; entry refusal to Australia I ■was'the alleged threats and; terrorism by Ananda Marga,' Mrs Carson said. Mrs Carson, who is a pen-i sioner, had been saving up for about a year to make the visit. She said she had not planned to make the trip

,at this particular time, but when her daughter Myrna, I j decided to visit Australia; she had made up her mind ■ to go at the same time. Mrs Carson, who had not, been an active member of} Ananda Marga but had} .shown an interest, said she! i did not know at this stage if! she would attempt to make another visit to Australia. "It is just too much for Ime at the moment,” she said. Her husband, Mr Walter ! Carson said his first reacItion was one of disgust. “It seemed so unfair. She is an i inoffensive woman,” Mr Carison said. "She is just in the movement for the good it is doing. "It is quite a good group,} but the rebel part seems to J stick,” he said. His wife had been in; Ananda Marga for about! three years. She had met! some of them and they were | "nice people, and she just] ! seemed to join up.” The Australian Federal! | Government announced on; (Friday evening a ban on I [members of the sect, other! [than Australian residents,; [from entering the country,; land Mrs Carson was put on a return flight when she arrived. The Minister of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (Mr Michael MacKellar) said the sect was being investigated because of “incidents of violence involving sect memI bers and because it supports I literature advocating revolutionary violence." Mr Ajmani said the sect

had violence as part of its creed, no matter what its members said to the con♦rary. “We are in possession ofi information and evidence; implicating Ananda Marga in;

every single act of violence (against the Indian Government in Australia,” Mr Ajmani said. "It is devoid of any , spiritual content — as } different from Hindu religion and culture as chalk from (cheese. “It is just a cult,” he said. Mr Ajmani said the ban on entry into Australia of Ananda Marga members was a domestic matter for the Australian Government. The Indian Government and the High Commission had not sought the ban nor been involved in any way. But he said th" Indian Government would have acted in the same way in relation to such a restraint on I members of a violent cult whose activities were under investigation. “The stabbing and at- ( tempted abduction of Colonel Singh (the High Commission’s military attache) and Mrs Singh was done by a self-avowed member of Ananda Marga. and we bejlieve that Ananda Marga has! (not renounced its campaign; lof threat and violence,” Mr! ; Ajmani said. The Ananda Marga moveI ment has appealed to the New Zealand Government to pressure the Australian Government into lifting the bast on members of the group. The New Zealand Minister! of Immigration (Mr Gill) said last evening that there was no blanket ban on members of any organisation coming to New Zealand. Every person entering the

country was treated on his or her merits, Mr Gill said, although the Government was sometimes warned in (advance by overseas authorities of the movements of i persons.