Srinagar: Locals in Kashmir alleged that they were tricked by the organiser of an event on Saturday to listen to the speech of Art of Living founder. According to them, they were told that they would be provided jobs and training. However, the locals were landed in the speech of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
People started to leave the programme, while Ravishankar was in the middle of his speech at Paigham-e-Mohabbat (message of love) function at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) lawns. He had to cut his speech short.
“We reached here early in the morning. We were told that we will be given jobs and some management company is giving training here,” a group of youths from Pantha Chowk area of the city said. The people there said they did not know that Ravi Shankar was there to speak.
A group of people from Budgam district said they were told some religious scholar would speak on Islam. “We would not have participated in this event had we known who was to speak. We were tricked by the organisers,” they claimed. A number of women told Rising Kashmir that they were lured to attend the event with the promise of sewing machines and certificates from skill centres.
Whereas, another group of students were promised Cricket kits by the organiser. “We were promised Cricket kits and money. But we have not been given anything, not even a glass of water,” Javed Ahmad, a student from Baramulla district said. “If our neighbours and friends come to know we had come here, it would be so embarrassing,” another student said.
After raising some slogans, the people left the event peacefully. While commenting on this, the spiritual guru said, it was he who was invited to Kashmir and he had not invited those people.
“I want to see an atmosphere of beauty, peace and love here, for which we all have to work together. If we think about past only, then we will remain sad. We should look forward. We have the courage and power to be resilient and think about our future,” Ravi Shankar stated.
With agency inputs