Amid ongoing row over the anti-national sloganeering at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Saturday said that “Jai Hind and Pakistan Zindabad” should go together for peace and development in the region.
The festival witnessed a unique scene, when the slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ were shouted on the same podium where Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was also seated. However, they were soon followed by slogans of ‘Jai Hind’.
The exercise was a part of the spiritual Guru’s bid to spread a message of peace within the subcontinent, which was also the mantra of religious leaders from both India and Pakistan, who have come to attend the festival to Delhi. The Art of Living founder said on Saturday that “Jai Hind and Pakistan Zindabad should go together”. Shankar was speaking on the second day of the festival and in the presence of thousands of people as well as prominent religious leaders, including Pakistan’s Mufti Muhammad Saeed Khan. The common theme of the message of all religious leaders was the importance of tolerance.
After Saeed Khan finished his speech, Shankar said that even Pakistan has been suffering from threats from terrorism, and that India and Pakistan should progress together. “Jai Hind and Pakistan Zindabad should go together. It should be a win-win situation for both sides. We should focus on winning and making the other also win,” said Shankar. The slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ and ‘Jai Hind’ were heard on the same podium where besides Rajnath Singh, Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia were also present.
Singh, Swaraj and Sisodia also addressed the gathering. It is pertinent to mention here that Shankar has gone to Pakistan and also has in the past professed peace between India and Pakistan. A documentary was made on his peace mission in Pakistan by BBC Hindi, wherein he said that he did not feel any different there than India. He said that he had got a warm welcome from the country and was glad to have visited it.
