8000 musician’s from musical symphony and 650 drummers from Africa also took part in this event. Arvind Kejriwal along with his cabinet, few Union ministers and Prime Minister Narendra Modi graced the event and tweeted a few words in praise as well.
Even so, for all its greatness, the event did not manage to please everyone. The heavy rainfall, improper lighting and lack of proper management put the thousands of followers gathered there in difficult position. Adding to mismanagement, there were accusations of causing ecological damage to the Yamuna floodplain and a committee appointed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) recommended a hefty fine of 1200 million which was later reduced to 50 million.
There are many voicing their strong opinion against the WCF and the ecological damage done to the Yamuna flood plains. I believe that the Art of Living foundation is doing a very good job although doing things in a different way could have been a viable course of action. Instead of choosing a site as controversial as the Yamuna flood plains they could have avoided it altogether. Also, there were many people and national dailies complaining about the huge amount of garbage left behind and its amazing that nobody bothered when there were heaps of garbage after the Commonwealth Games but when Sri Sri Ravi Shankar held a mega cultural event suddenly people were all touchy about the Yamuna. But that is not even an issue because it is just hypocrisy all over again.
There is just one issue which I want to highlight. That is the issue of not organising the event under a roof. The past few days, Delhi has been seeing rainfall quite often and i think the same should have been on the minds of the volunteers as well. I see management as the only issue with the festival. I just do not feel it is fair if people travel from around the world to perform at an event and are met with difficulties in basic necessities.
Arindam Goswami
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