World Culture Festival Raises Several Ethical Questions
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava
13 March, 2016
Countercurrents.org
India is strange country. The country boasts about great moral values. The leaders, spiritual leaders , self styled God men all talk lofty things. their sayings appear as oracle, springing from the divine land but when their personal interests come into fore they have different speaking and behaviuors.
The latest is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar led Art of living’s World Culture Festival . Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, who was due to give valedictory address at the cultural festival, later declined. Several world leaders skipped the meet. Sad is that Indian PM inaugurated the function although he himself is very sensitive on this issue as his speech in Paris summit last year suggests .He had said that “So, the choices are not easy. But, we have awareness and technology. We need now national will and a genuine global partnership. Democratic India must grow rapidly to meet the aspirations of 1.25 billion people, 300 million of whom are without access to energy. We are determined to do so, guided by our ancient belief that people and planet are inseparable; that human well being and Nature are indivisible. (and) We will succeed if we have the wisdom and courage to craft a genuinely collective partnership that balances responsibilities and capabilities with aspirations and needs.” PM is correct when he says we need a collective partnership to save the world but we all collectively failed in this event, PM inaugurated the event. A bad precedent has been set.
Knowing well the stand of the people and environmentalists ; still Sri Sri Ravi Shankar went to organize the programme at the Yamuna banks; that it was not in the best of the spirit of the environmental health but he went forward, on one news channel , he was talking as he had no care of things. India expects good things from him , but this festival showed that environment protection, climate change fight; all these issues are only empty talks of our esteemed people.
NGT slapped environmental compensation of five crores but he initially stated that he would not pay but finally he paid only 25 lakhs, rest will be paid after some time. Was such relaxation ever available to a common men? A common man loses all his funds whenever any fine is imposed, and installment facilities are very hard to obtain. Slapping of environmental compensation shows that he and his programme were fundamentally incorrect and disobeyed the environmental ethics. Even NGT said that the rule of the law should be maintained. It remarked “certainly, adherence to the rule of law is the duty of not only the government but citizens also. The rule of law is the very foundation of administration of justice. If the rule of law is hurt, it will affect the justice dispensation system,” Art. 14 provides equality before law and equal protection by the law. It is not qualified, it is absolute but payment of the compensation was relaxed, showing that there may be certain relaxations for some privileged people.
Now the moot question is : what a common man should do? Where should it go? If we cut a single green tree we are liable for the punishment. Moreover, why the army was involved in this programme in building the bridge. We have heard that role of the army is to protect the borders, to help in calamities and on request to maintain the law and order. Here army was working; was the programme an Indian government programme? If not, then why so much activity? According to a news item published in The Hindu on March 10, 2016 that “ there is widespread anger in military circles against the government’s decision to deploy the Army for building two pontoon bridges for the World Cultural Festival being organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living foundation.” Is it a good development?
Environmental destruction, even of the least quantity is bad. All concerned must understand that such programmes serve no purpose but only attract the media glare , just to serve the particular interests. The loss of the environment carries more importance than organizing such programmes. Such losses should be avoided. The sad point is that NGT did not take a hard step. It should have banned the programme so that even a single unit loss of the environment could have been saved. It appears that there is need to amend the NGT act 2010 so that it could be more powerful, to give the strict decisions.
All Indians value their environment. India was the first country in the world where the first environmental movement led by Amrita Devi was launched against the royalty of the Jodhpur king. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and his Art of Living foundation MUST learn some environmental ethics from these GREAT women of the country. In this background none should be allowed to be made bigger than the environmental parameters and all should follow the basic premises of the environmental ethics. IT IS OUR FUNDAMENTAL DUTY. There is no need to be prideful for anyone as history judges all in a critical manner.
Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava is Assistant Professor, CSJM Kanpur University (affiliated College) and Vice Chairman CSSP, e [email protected]