SRINAGAR: Hundreds of seats were empty at
Bollywood
singer
Adnan Sami’s concert in Srinagar on Saturday as the government-sponsored show was closed to the public.
Most of the passes were issued to police officers, bureaucrats and politicians and their families, many of whom did not turn up. The show was organised by the ministry of home affairs and the Jammu &
Kashmir government.
Union minister of state for home
Kiren Rijiju was at the concert but chief minister
Mehbooba Mufti, deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh and all state BJP ministers skipped the show.
The four-kilometre boulevard, leading to the Sher-e- Kashmir international convention complex on the banks of the Dal lake, was sealed by a large contingent of security forces, but less than the expected 3,000 people turned up at the venue.
Mehmood Shah, director of tourism, Kashmir, said the people they had invited had not turned up for the show, and they would open such programmes to the public in future. The tourism director and deputy commissioner had been authorised to issue non-transferrable colour-coded passes only to certain guests.
Asif Shah, a 17-year-old DPS student, and his businessman father
Muzafar Shah
wanted to attend the show but could not manage to get passes. “I am fan of Adnan Sami and wanted to be at the concert. I was disappointed but watched it on television,” he said.
Sami’s show, ‘Rhythm in Paradise’, was held four years after Western classical music conductor
Zubin Mehta
performed his ‘Ehsas-e-Kashmir’ at Shalimar lawns.
On Friday, while meeting local artists, Sami had said: “The language of art transcends all differences created by people, and rises above hate to spread a message of peace and harmony.” He said the mysticism and Sufism of Kashmir would “continue to inspire me and influence my music”.