PM to open mega cultural event
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar declared he would prefer going to jail instead of paying the fine; Green Tribunal gives him another 24 hours to pay up.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate the three-day World Cultural festival organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Foundation on the banks of the devastated river Yamuna. The might of the Modi Sarkar is working overtime to ensure that the event that has drawn flak from environmentalists is a big hit.
Union minister Venkaiah Naidu brushed aside all environmental concerns commenting that the prestige of the entire country is at stake considering that people from 35 countries are participating.
“Anything that is Hindu, India, Bharatiya, you object,” he told Congress leaders who had charged that the government has abdicated its environmental responsibility by sanctioning the banks of the River Yamuna as the venue.
However, the objections have come not only from the opposition parties, but even the National Green Tribunal that gave a go ahead to the event with fines and conditions, amid concerns over the damage to the fragile ecology of the Yamuna flood plains. The principle of fait accompli seems to have operated behind this decision of the NGT as a four-member committee set up by it expressed an opinion that so many changes to the floodplains had already been made that it would be futile to stop the event. Instead, the organisation should be asked to pay a heavy fine before the event and then told to restore the plains. A fine of Rs 5 crores was imposed.
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But the influential spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has declared that he would prefer going to jail instead of paying the fine. “We will go to jail but will not pay the fine. We have done nothing wrong,” he maintained.
The Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur on Thursday refused entertain a petition to stop the mega event as it had been filed too late. The NGT’s 4-member Principal Bench headed by former Supreme Court judge Swatanter Kumar also refused to give an urgent hearing to a fresh application seeking stay on the event on the ground that AOL has not taken requisite permissions from the police, the fire department and the CPWD as directed by it in its 10-page interim order on Wednesday.
“There is no urgency in it. You can file a proper application and point out the deficiencies in compliance with the directions of the tribunal. We will see if there is any breach or not as per the law,” it said.
Justice Swatanter Kumar disregarded AOL founder’s open defiance of the NGT orders to deposit Rs 5 crore with the DDA by 4 PM on Thursday as initial penalty for damaging the ecology. He instead decided to give AOL time for another 24 hours to deposit the penalty, with a warning that in case of default the law will take its own course. “If there is breach of any condition, the matter will be taken up as and when required and law will take its own course,” he said.
The controversy has taken its toll. President Pranab Mukherjee, who was also invited to the event along with PM Modi, has cancelled his attendance. Zimbabwe President Robert Mogabe, who came to Delhi for the event, also announced that he has decided to fly back home because of “substantial inadequacies in protocol and security arrangements.
Modi, Kejri in league: Congress
With Prime Minister Modi attending the inaugural session and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal asserting that “politics and controversies” should be “put to rest” after the court clearance, the Congress attacked both of them. “This has proved the point that we have been making for a long time. Both Prime Minister Modi and Kejriwal are in league, controlled by the RSS,” said party spokesperson Ajay Maken.
Describing the event as a ‘return gift’ by Modi to the spiritual guru, Maken said that their proximity is well known from the days of the 2014 election campaign. “Comparisons between the periodic Kumbh and this event are misplaced. The kumbh has a religious significance, but what about the religious significance of a cultural festival,” he said.