Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s attendance at the seminar ‘Paigham-e-Mohabbat’ in Srinagar was cut short. Angry protesters present in the crowds began shouting slogans and forced him to leave the seminar.
The matter didn’t end there, the people who attended said that they were forced to be there. The audience was made to sit there for a really long time and no food or water was organised for them. Some even left the seminar feeling cheated as they were promised a Pakistani speaker as well at the seminar. The seminar was supposed to be about peace-building and trust. They were told that they would be given training and jobs, the group from Pantha Chowk said they were told that management company was going to be giving training at the seminar.
People from the Budgam district were told that a religious scholar was going to be coming to address them but on Islam. They called it a trick by the organisers. Students complained that they were promised cricket kits for attending. Some were promised money too. Slogans demanding freedom were raised but no violence ensued.
In his address, before the slogans were raised, Sri Sri said, “Whenever I have come I see the pain and suffering despite that I see the reflection of love here…I am yours and you are mine. Together we have to work for the mitigation of this pain to generate an atmosphere of peace here…Thinking about the past will make us sad. We should move on. We have that resilience and think about our future.“
According to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar he was not aware of the means used to bring the crowd there. He said he was there to listen to their issues. But he didn’t mention who invited him to speak. Sheikh Imran the head of the JK People’s Alliance said he and a small party had invited spiritual head to address the gathering. But he denied that peopl were bribed to attend, he instead blamed the problems on the large turnout.