Lessons for Sri Sri from an event manager
I think people who are trying to point fingers at Art Of Living (AOL) are wrong because they've been given permission already so they're doing whatever they have been permitted to to organise such a grand event. The fact that this is the place that was given to them - by the state or central, whatever government shows that the system is the problem. Any event organiser who was given this land would do whatever they want on it - they would flatten it, remove stuff, build structures.
AOL's fault is 15 per cent and the government's fault is 85 per cent because why did you allow this in the first place. Once you allow them, it's unfair for anybody to cancel it, because they've spent somewhere close to Rs 60-100 crore on the event and now what are you going to do? They can't shift it, they can't move it. Where are they going to go with all that nonsense?
Venue woes
I think the sad part is that Delhi had other venues where this could have been done. But he said, Yamuna ke pass karna hai. The reason given was that they want to clean up the banks of the Yamuna. If you want to clean up the Yamuna, just go clean it up. If I wanted to clean up the streets, I'd take a jhadoo, not do a rock concert and say, okay, after this, I'll clean it up.
I remember a few years ago somebody wanted to do a small movie screening near the Yamuna of a film that actually had something to do with the Yamuna, and it was relevant. And there was objections. Here you've gone and rolled everything over, changed the entire terrain. And somebody is putting a price tag on all this.
How can you put a price tag? These are centuries of national landscape, and you're saying that's worth Rs 120 crore? And obviously nobody is going to pay this fine. You've got to be kidding me if you think that will happen.
Special treatment
I think the entire thing is about WHO organising the event. If somebody else had been trying to organise the same event and - this would never have been allowed. It's a vote bank event - you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. If it were a regular event - if I was doing an event to promote music and culture and got musicians from 100 countries, where I wanted 3 million people in attendance, I would still not have been given permission to do any of this.
When it comes to DDA, I remember for NH7 - the parking space was on DDA land. We had been given permission for a certain date, so the night before (6pm), we started building a box office for the parking, not even a stage. And these guys landed up with bulldozers and all of that and told us our permission is effective only after midnight. There was no logic in it whatsoever.
Here I understand that permission has been taken for X acres and about 3 times the amount of land is being used and there are absolutely no bulldozers or anything landing up there. In fact the DDA counsel shouted at the complainant yesterday, complaining about how these guys come and prevent an event from happening.
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| Vijay Nair is the director and co-founder of Only Much Louder. |
If it's a state event, say it's a state event
When the Make in India event happened in Mumbai, the state government was taken to court and they had to go and justify how and why Chowpatty was used as a venue. The justification was that this was a government event, which helps with investments and so on. The state did not get permission and had to go to court. In this case what is so damn special that all of this can be overlooked and you can just go straight to the top and get permission? Why should it be within the purview of the PMO to look into one event?
I mean, the army was called in, it's bizarre. And we cannot compare it to Kumbh Mela, which again, is a state event. Why are so many insinuations being made that this is a state event? And if it is, then call it a state event. Let it be the "Government of India presents the World Culture and Peace Festival."
Who's footing the bill?
If we want to book DDA land for something the size of NH7 which is 1/100 the size of them would be anything between Rs 40-45 lakh. Going by that, this land should not cost them anything less than Rs 8-10 crore. I want to take a wild guess and say that the land has been given free. I am not sure. They might be pulling the religious/charitable card but then this is not religion.
Charitable exemptions also comes with a series of clauses. I am taking another wild guess and saying that these documents would not have been procured. You cannot book a DDA land unless you go to the DDA website and do all the payment online. I doubt something of this nature has happened.
If we had to do any event, for more than even 25,000 people, the police would blindly say no. Because of the kind of arrangements you have to do for an event of this scale. 25,000 people means 6-7,000 cars - usski parking kahaan se aayegi, they would ask. And you need bandobast. A normal police bandobast is Rs 5-7 lakh for a small event of 5-7,000 people. Now for something like this, my estimate would be, that approximately Rs 10-15 crore and the exchequer is paying for this event.
My hunch is nobody's paying for this. What may end up happening is they may have to pay because of the fuss that is being created. For them, this is no big deal. Another Rs 10-15 crore is nothing. If you give anything for free, that is a loss to the exchequer. Why would they get an exemption on entertainment tax? If I was doing an event free of cost, I'd still have to pay entertainment tax.
Dubious headcount
So now officially they've said 3.5 million people will be in attendance. I've read that in a declaration in court they've said 200,000 people. Somebody's lying - either their marketing is lying or they're lying in court. I mean the two numbers aren't even in the same ballpark.
The bottomline gets screwed if you cancel.
I don't have a problem with the event at all. I might not believe in this thing but let the event happen, let half a million people come, the economy will locally get a boost and all of that but why are you doing it in a place where you'll ruin it completely? Why bed the rules to do it.
They're going to do this event, whether we like it or not. Nobody can stop them. I have no delusions about that. People attending or not attending doesn't matter because the damage that needed to be done, is done. A part of me really doesn't want this event to be cancelled. The bottom line gets screwed if that happens. The people who built the pandal etc will not get paid.
If they go by the textbook, the event cannot happen. There are too many violations.
(As told to Asmita Bakshi.)