In the on-going saga of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s World Culture Festival to be or not, the biggest spectacle has been the National Green Tribunal. When needed to bite, it growled and found that the politically powerful sometimes don’t get deterred by mere growling that might still make a bureaucrat stand quivering in attendance before the quasi-court.

The NGT squeamishly backed off. Let us look at the facts. The NGT appointed panels, one with no less than the water resources secretary heading it, found that the festival organisers had violated environmental norms and ...