Pravat pheris &Ram dhun to rekindle the moral force:

The new political experiment - AAP- has taken many by surprise. People have started accusing AAP for accepting all kinds of people without doing a background check. Any sane member of AAP knows that, as AAP has many good people as its members, due to the open door policy, it also has many people with questionable merits. 

Many people have started asking, and quite rightly so, how will AAP reconcile its claims of eradicating corruption while accepting corrupt people?

Well, there is no magic formula; however, here also we would rely on the two-pronged approach of instituting systems, which would do the necessary filtering, and then we’d also have a moral purging process, which will help willing people to crossover and get into the right side. Gandhi Ji called it “Hridaya Parivartan”- change of heart. For, ours is no witch hunting and we are not happy merely by branding someone as corrupt. Going beyond that; lets admit there is no gain say in accusing people of corruption, when most of it is an offshoot of the prevalent corrupt systems and practices. Rather we should work towards removal of the same through systematic measures and while doing so we’d give all the people second/ third chances to amend their ways. Didn't Gandhi say: "Hate thievery/ theft not the thief"! The real achievement is when the Ratnakars of the present system willingly become the Balmikis of the new systems! Then they’d work in the new systems with renewed vigor. Our over arching aim should be that.

Hence, we should, side by side, have a system to purge our moral dross. What is that system? Well, again we can fall back upon the time tested “Paravat Pheris” for; we don’t have to reinvent the wheel!

Keeping that in mind we are going to start "Pravat Pheris" in Bhubaneswar and expect that would be replicated across the state, in due course. As the approach is based on “Love”, not “hatred”, we’d try to include as many people as we can. Hence, the ground rules for these “Pravat Pheris” would be:

1) Not to give slogans in favor of any political party; we expect most of the participants to be members of AAP or sympathizers of AAP though.

2) To sing Ram Dhun and other similar devotional songs without malice towards any party or community so as to recreate the ambience for holistic pleasure (sans wine and sans vulgarism)

3) All people, irrespective of their political affiliation, would be welcome.

4) We expect a good number of Auto rickshaw pullers, Hawkers, daily laborers, students and artisans to join us

For how long?

AAP claims itself to be a movement to cleanse politics ( not just a political party). So, once started we should not stop, even after the elections. This would be one of the nicest ways to prove that we are not an election-to-election party but, in line with our claims, we are going to work for ennobling the political ambience throughout the year- year after year.

Well begun is half done!

27 February 2014 is Jagara Amabashya- a holy night as per Hindu tradition. When millions of devotees stay awake to fulfill their wishes; how if, we also mount a candle light vigil at our ‘Dharana Sthall’ and then follow that up with a grand “Pravat pheri” in and around Master canteen, in the early hours of 28 February 2014? For some, its too late; however, there are others who always caution us to look before we leap. I guess this is a balanced approach; isn’t it?

You are welcome to join with us; will you?

Now; how did it go?
well it was a non-starter :( 
Undeterred i proposed on Holi to do pravat pheris in our residential society to an elderly resident who conducts such events during Independence Day and Republic day celebrations. Here is what I posted on my FB page to promote this:

Bad money drives out good money . . . However, the good news is; the reverse is also true!

Now we notice free flow of alcohol, irrespective of the occasion.

For long we've felt Gandhi and his time tested approaches could be an answer to this menace.

Sri Sitapati Rao has agreed to start a pravat pheri from tomorrow in our society. I am going to join. If you are also a resident of Debashram you are also welcome to experience this holistic movement.

Did we break Ice?
Sorry, No :(  However, we'll. The purpose of these posts is to keep the fire burning. Hum Hoongey Kamyab.