Why did the government feel the need to deploy the army to build pontoon bridges across the Yamuna for a religious event held by a private organisation?

Nobody in the Central government has a satisfactory answer.

The ambitiously named World Culture Festival, which celebrates 35 years of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Foundation, has run into trouble for flouting environmental regulations. In the latest instalment of the controversy, President Pranab Mukherjee, who was to attend the valedictory ceremony on Sunday, has pleaded “unavoidable circumstances” and opted out.

The grand plan

The three day festival has been planned on a mammoth scale, sprawling across 1,000 acres of the Yamuna flood plains. A massive, 40-feet high, multi-storeyed stage has been raised on steel rods, built to accommodate thousands of artists at the same time. Large white portable cabins and makeshift huts dot the grounds, and a temporary parking lot has also been set up.

Five pontoon bridges were to be built over Yamuna in order to ferry an estimated 35 lakh people coursing in and out of the venue.

There were also reports that the organisers were to inject an “enzyme” into the drains flowing into the Yamuna, in order to clean them.

The fragile ecology of the Yamuna is already under threat and experts feel that this latest jamboree will leave a permanent impact on the floodplains.

After environmentalists raised questions about the event, two fact-finding teams were sent to investigate. They returned with wildly different findings. While the team sent by the Delhi Development Authority said that no digging had taken place, the team headed by AK Gosain of IIT Delhi found a vast tract of land cleared of all natural vegetation and evidence of rampant construction.

After activist Manoj Misra of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan took the matter to the National Green Tribunal, a third investigative committee was set up. Based on its findings, the panel recommended that the Art of Living Foundation pay Rs 100-120 crore as reparations for damage caused. The NGT is to rule on the recommendations today.

Centre must speak

What cannot be explained is why the government chose to support this act of hubris and why it used the army instead of going to private contractors.

The army had reportedly asked why it should be put to such a task, to which officials were quoted as saying that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had replied that such arrangements were necessary to regulate crowds and prevent a stampede. Since the government had given permission for it, Parrikar was quoted to have said, it had to ensure that things ran smoothly. The defence ministry has since clarified that such measures were taken for “security reasons”.

But why did the government give permission in the first place? And what imperative of “security” calls for such heavy construction? In the absence of a reasoned voice from the Centre, all we have heard are justifications from the Art of Living team and Sri Sri Ravishankar.

Some are unacceptable – the Art of Living festival is just like the Kumbh Mela, where thousands of people come together for the “greater good”. The greater good evidently does not include farmers who survive on the land and claim they were forced to move to make space for the event.

And some, put forward by the god man himself, must be mystical:

Villagers have said that buffaloes who never ventured near the water are now entering the water. Even the buffaloes recognize! (5) — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (@SriSri) March 3, 2016

By failing to make a case for itself to the public, the government has reinforced the impression that it does not prioritise environmental concerns, that it is a willing partner in the process of public commons and resources being cornered by powerful private interests. If it wants to dispel this impression, the Centre must speak.