When sound of the piano of famous singer-composer Adnan Sami wafted across the lawns of the SKICC in Srinagar, rows of the empty seats in the audience seemed to mock the music. Fewer common people were present in the audience, something that spoke to the elitist nature of the event. A large chunk of the audience comprised of the political and bureaucratic elite and the security personnel. So, in a sense, the purpose of holding the event in Srinagar was served in breach.
In hindsight, it appears that the government itself didnt want the common people to attend the event lest it result in a protest against the event and in favour of Kashmirs Azadi. Besides, in an unprecedented measure the government had barred the transport on Boulevard and made elaborate traffic arrangements to divert the traffic which passes through the roads close to the event. A press release to this effect had been advertised in local dailies.
According to a government handout, around 3000 guests were expected to attend the event comprising children, media persons and officers. The Deputy Commissioner Srinagar was supervising the event. He and Director Tourism jointly issued colour coded passes for one person on non transferable basis with acknowledgment entries of the guests besides setting up the joint control room of all concerned departments at the venue. But as the composition of the audience underlined, the common people had deliberately been kept away.
However, unlike the performance of the Junoon group in May 2008 which was opposed by the Hizbul Mujahideen supremo Syed Salahuddin or for that matter that of the Zubin Mehta in 2013 or the literary festival in 2011 which faced a severe civil society backlash, no political or social group took any exception to Samis concert. For the state and the central government the performance which followed shortly after the one by a Kashmiri singer Abha Hanjura was seen as part of an attempt to send across a message of normalcy about Kashmir to boost the drastically reduced tourism inflow.
In addition to that the singers concert in Kashmir acquired some distinct political overtones which were not lost on Kashmir. When he sang his chartbusting numbers on the banks of the Dal lake to the applause of the audience, his background as a former Pakistani musician who voluntarily renounced the countrys citizenship to become an Indian citizen was equally important in a place rife with pro-freedom and pro-Pakistan sentiment.
However, this implicit political message hardly seemed to matter when Adnan sang. When he first emerged on the stage, the audience broke into a spontaneous applause. And as he sung his famous numbers like Teray bina jiya jaaye na and Dil keh raha hai dilbar, the audience sang along. Still the excitement was far less than what Samis concerts generate elsewhere. And the reason for this was not far to seek.
The empty seats and the general indifference towards the concert among the people reflected a Kashmir that is far from normal. While concerts like the one by Adnan send a deceptive positive message to the rest of the country and the world about Kashmir, they do little to ameliorate the depressing situation in the state. More so, when people are deliberately left out of the events.
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