We all know The Times of India is one of the best papers to turn to if you’re looking for ‘extensive’ coverage of the affairs of the state, especially when it comes to its city pages. This is why, when we wanted to know more about the “Sri Sri Mega Show” – to borrow The Indian Express’ slug for the upcoming World Culture Festival, organised by Art of Living – we picked up the Delhi edition of ToI.

Unfortunately, we didn’t end up learning much about the event. The “world’s largest selling English newspaper” did not carry a single report on the issue on its front page today. There was no mention of the environmental disaster that may come in the wake of this event, not a snippet on the army building pontoons for Art of Living, and no indication that the National Green Tribunal had rapped the Union environment ministry. Not only was there nothing about the Art of Living’s anniversary bash on the first page, there was nothing on the second or third pages either.

It was when we reached the fourth page that we finally found some news on Art of Living, below the lead story on airlines not getting enough slots on the runways of the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Headlined “NGT raises questions on AOL event”, the story gave details from the Green Tribunal’s hearing yesterday. The paper also carried a little report alongside about the Ministry of Home Affairs ordering cops to guard the event.

Moving on to The Hindu, The Hindustan Times and The Indian Express, our curiosity was served better. The three major English dailies carried the report on the mess that is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s party on their front pages.

Along, with a report on the front-page, IE dedicated more than half of its third page to the event. HT’s page two (HT Metro) covered various angles like the Union Defense Ministry asking the army to build bridges, Sri Sri promising a biodiversity park, and so on.  The Hindu carried four stories on the event on page four, packaged as “Art of Living: Green concern”, with the lead story headlined, “A Festival That Has Become Too Big To Fail.”

Something about the less-than-extensive coverage didn’t add up. Is TOI’s city bureau slacking? Is Sri Sri’s event not newsworthy enough? To find out we did what you do when you smell a conspiracy theory: we logged on to Twitter.

We reached out to our sources in TOI in the Delhi office for clarity and clarifications, and were informed that the newspaper’s employees too were wondering what was up. A former TOI employee told us that during the time she was at the organisation, “Art of Living and Sri Sri were perceived to be holy cows”. Bennett, Coleman and Co Chairperson Indu Jain is known to be a devout follower of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. The spiritual leader was at the launch of Jain’s “Oneness Forum”. The Hoot in 2007 noted that “The day after the Bangalore Mirror was launched, the paper carried a picture of the Chairperson of Bennett, Coleman and Co., Indu Jain, presenting a copy of the paper to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.”

An Art of Living blog mentions how Jain had a role to play in making a young, around 20-year-old Sri Sri Ravi Shankar meet former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Vikas Singh, Deputy Executive Editor, Delhi, ToI, however, dismissed the idea that ToI was blacking out news on the Art of Living event. “It is completely driven by what news we consider important,” said Singh. “Yesterday, we did front-page it. Today, since the hearing was deferred, we carried it in inside pages.” He added that since the NGT’s verdict is out, it’s a strong front-page contender for tomorrow.

The only story ToI had about World Culture Festival on its front-page yesterday focused on the “high alert for Art of Living event”. The story detailed security measures being adopted. “The event, which will have artists from across the world, is of international significance and hence a prime target for terror groups, sources in the intelligence said,” said the article.

Significantly, the coverage did not focus on the misuse of the army, or the controversy about the environment clearances required for the festival. Meanwhile, even as military veterans have slammed the use of the army for the event, calling it shameful and rotten, Times Now’s Newshour, the go-to show for upholding soldiers’ honour, has not deemed this important for a debate. Is Arnab Goswami looking away as Sri Sri gets away? The nation wants to know.