Kashmir in turmoil over Mehta concert

SRINAGAR: The mood was tense at Shalimar Bagh, the terraced Mughal-era gardens set amid Himalayan peaks in Kashmir, where a concert for peace is supposed to happen Saturday.
As workers rushed one recent day to screw new spigots onto fountains that had been dry for years, two gardeners got in a shouting match, with one throwing down his twig broom and walking away in disgust. Most visitors were frisked at the entrance.
Things were worse outside the gates, however. Police and paramilitary forces were ramping up security in advance of the concert featuring internationally known conductor Zubin Mehta directing the Bavarian State Orchestra in an open-air performance. More than 1,500 invited guests have been invited.
But what began as a nice idea by Mehta and some German diplomats to promote peace in this war-scarred region has instead wound up generating more animosity, a sign of the divisions in a land that has been bitterly contested by India and Pakistan since partition in 1947. In recent days, Kashmiri separatist groups have denounced the musical event, saying no concert for peace put on by outsiders should be held until Kashmir is free from India, which is predominantly Hindu.
A general strike has been called by one hard-liner. Checkpoints have been set up around the city, and security forces are expected to patrol the lake on boats. “Kashmir is a disputed region under military occupation,” said Khurram Parvez, who heads the human rights group Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society. “We don’t understand how anyone could disregard the reality of Kashmir.”
Parvez is organizing a free counter-concert to be held the same day, with performances ranging from Kashmiri folk music to rap. Other Kashmiris have grumbled that the government has paid more than $500,000 to renovate the crumbling gardens at a time when it is short on funds for other, more practical projects. They complain that few ordinary citizens are on the guest list. Parvez said that the invitees include Bollywood stars, government officials and the scions of some of India’s wealthiest families.
The German Embassy in New Delhi and other organizers of the Mehta concert have been taken aback at the vitriol. The event, funded by private donations, will be live-streamed and broadcast live in India and Europe.
Mehta, 77, who was born in Bombay, now Mumbai, has conducted orchestras around the world and peace concerts in places such as Sarajevo and Tel Aviv, but he has long wanted to do a performance in Kashmir that would bring together Hindus and Muslims, he has said.