Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Why criticize AOL?' that was published in Newsband

Why criticize AOL?

The Art of Living Foundation believes in ‘humanitarianism’ and the oneness of cultures but the event organized by AOL on the floodplain of River Yamuna has invited severe criticisms from many. They call this a thoughtless environmental destruction.

The head of the Foundation is Sri Sri Ravishankar, under whom AOL is doing tons of work to impart education, peace & working on draught hit areas of Maharashtra and Andhra. Then why so much fuss about AOL having organized

a world culture festival at the Yamuna flood plain. AOL has decided to have the festival near that river to bring back that holy respect to the river.

Sri Ravi Shankar is doing so much work to bring the peace across India & globally in many terror hit countries. Any human can tell you, how precious and beautiful that environment is, and what comes out of it. And when it is an environment you are sharing with 3.5 millions of people from 155 countries, the verse from our Vedas becomes a reality, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. Having established the grandiose of this event, Let us address the undertone of contempt towards the Art of Living. One should not forget the river rejuvenation projects by the Art of Living (namely Kumudvati, Vedavati, etc.) and mainly, to the river in question, Yamuna in 2010. That proves they are devoted in their service to the Society and their Nature. Having claimed the participation of 3.5 million people from 155 countries, it should not be difficult for the organisers to mobilise the funds needed to restore the ecology of an invaluable part of the country’s natural heritage.

The RSS rulers at the Centre are right in getting talkers like Mr Ravishankar to pacify the frustrated masses by feeding them with the "spiritual" pill. The way many Indians are criticizing the good work of Sri Ravishankar, one feels that hereafter he should conduct such Indian cultural events in foreign countries where there will be no politics. India is not a safe place for conducting Indian cultural and heritage events. Or the event could have been held in Bangalore where Srisri has his own premises. The environmentalists have genuine concern for these floodplains and the biodiversity of the river bed. The event would have gone off without a hitch and Sri Sri donors would have been happy to fund the event. None of these controversies would have taken place.

Indian culture and heritage are regularly showcased abroad (by GoI and others) in a wonderfully tasteful manner appealing to the specific audience and country, and without exception these events are very well received. Why should any Indian be ashamed of India’s rich heritage and Indian philosophy, which is both ancient and profound, and no less important than Western or any other philosophy, as demonstrated by its study and research world over? To those few Indians who are unappreciative of Indian culture, the PM is right to ask, “If we keep criticising everything we have and do not take pride in our cultural legacy, why should the world look at us?” India does not live only in the past - as its scientific and technical advances prove. It rightly showcases ‘humanitarianism and the oneness of cultures’

In this whole episode, the main problem seems to be ignorance regarding different parts of the environment. It would be helpful if we had experts explaining to us perhaps with diagrams and figures, how a river works, the role of floodplains, what is recharging and how it occurs, biodiversity present on the river banks, consequences of damaging etc. Because in this country, knowledge of the environment is not adequate.

And why single out only the AOL? Why has every one kept silent on the issue of denudation of Nature's forestry during the past 68 years in Himalayas? Why is everyone keeping mum on illegal sand mining (monazite containing thorium material) from the sea coasts of Tamil Nadu, Odissa, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala etc? Why is everyone silent over illegal sand mining from the river beds from all over the country which is the root cause for drying by underground acuifiers? Why no one is taking up the issue of fishing on high seas using explosives? All super scams involving the political leaders-mafia nexus running into lakhs of crores - 2 Gs and like pale into insignificance! Come along? Talk up more key issues rather than championing only such an issue.