Sri Sri ready to go to jail but will not pay a penny ; Is he above law?

The World Culture Festival kicked off amongst pomp and glory as the three day event still continued to remain in the midst of controversies. The NGT on Wednesday fined Shankar's Art of Living Foundation for damage caused to the Yamuna's flood plains because of construction for his three-day, Rs 26 crore World Culture Festival that began yesterday.

Earlier in one of the reports, the NGT reportedly asked the Art of Living Foundation to pay 128 Cr in fine. The matter took turns for the worse as the AoL team refused to pay the fine and even went to the height of challenging the Tribunal's decision. The NGT, in a press release, reiterated its stance and requested Sri Sri to cooperate in the situation and act responsibly. After much drama, the NGT decided to bring down the fine fee to 5 crores, but the fee has to be paid before the start of the event. This was after the Aol team stated tat since it is a charitable organization, it is nearly impossible to pay the humongous fine at such short notice. To this, the NGT again softened the stand and asked the organizers to pay 25 lakhs immediately and the rest in the next 40 days.

All was happily being wiped under the carpet. But the peaceful environment saw another twist in the drama when Sri Sri Ravi Shanker in his inaugural speech condemned the attacks on his event and termed it as “ evil” . Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi supported Sri Sri and said that showcasing the cultural heritage of India is the prime objective here and any hindrance to achieving this goal is indeed wron and evil. & quot Chaos is a blessing in disguise. A leader has a role to play when there is chaos. Since there is no dearth of chaos in the world, we need to create more leaders,& quot Sri Sri added.

After the distasteful exchange between the NGT and the godman, Sri Sri refused to pay the remaining fine and said that he is ready to go to jail but he will not be paying any fine. & quot I have never paid a single penny as fine till now and never will,& quot Shankar said on Saturday.

The NGT has reassured Sri Sri that the 5 crores it has asked from the foundation is not to be considered a fine but an 'environmental compensation' which would be used to ensure that vegetation and wildlife is restored as it was prior to the event in the Yamuna plains.

OUR TAKE

Even though the claim of Aol not being able to pay 5 crores to NGT at such notice may hold true, the attitude towards the whole situation is disturbing from both sides. The godman should understand the fact that the cultural festival, organized to showcase India and its diversity to the whole world cannot operate on the floodplains of a river and thus endangering the environmental living beings in that area. It speaks wrongly of us and our morals. On the other hand it is the duty of the NGT to ensure that the environment is protected. But rather than creating a ruckus of the whole situation just days before the whole event was not the right thing to do. The construction has been going on for the last one and a half years. No one spoke up about the environmental issue back then. There is a need to heighten the feeling of environmental concern amongst us.