Of Godmen and Politicians

Six ministers including I & PR minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy and municipal minister P Naraayana and Education minister Ganta Srinivas Rao invited the wrath of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu as they bunked the prestigious 'inner engineering for joyful living' camp held by Isha Foundation of Sadguru Jaggi Vasudeva .

About five IAS and two IPS officials also did not participate in the camp that was being held at HICC Novotel since yesterday aimed at providing the officials and ministers to find ways and means to fight work stress and concentrate better on the task of public service .

The scene at the HICC was one of somber and electric as Isha foundation volunteers in flowing white guided the ministers and bureaucrats through the day long sessions .'Let your self lose and focus on the task at hand' said Jaggi Vasudev who demonstrated to the elite crowd led by chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and others. The Isha foundation which normally did not allow any publicity and video or photography of their events had to relax regulations and allow official visuals of Chandrababu Naidu performing Pranayama and the chief secretary IYR Krishna Rao performing a yoga asana .

Chandrababu had admonished the ministers and officials who failed to attend. Responding to media exposure of his not attending the event, Palle Raghunatha Reddy said he had gone late and he was turned away.'I missed the first day and hence was told that I cannot come for the rest of two days event,' he said .

God men,management gurus,corporates, yoga exponents and politicians always have a common vibe and travel on a similar wave length. However strong be politicians - Indira Gandhi had given a full ear to Dhirendra Brahmachari Dr M Channa Reddy always fell at the feet of Puttaparthi Saibaba

AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is not an exception to it . He has geared up a reorientation camp for Ministers, Mayors, ZP chairmen and bureaucrats ( IAS.IPS,IFS) at Vijayawada from January 29-31. He has however left out party MLAs, MPs and MLCs in this crash course in public ethics, yoga and service.

During his first innings, Chandrababu had engaged God men Ganapati Sachidananda, Swami Chinmayananda and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to conduct refresher courses for officials and MLAs at MC HRD institute. He had also granted land to both Ganapati Sachidananda and Chinamayananda as well as helped them set up their shop Ashram in Hydrotherapy. Naidu was however more impressed by the activities of Brahma Kumaris and had granted them huge land at Gachibowli to build Ashram including a huge auditorium .

After these courses, the Video tapes of the training classes were sent to APARD and also the districts to be screened for the benefit of gazetted officers of the state government. 'Such orientation is aimed at infusing work ethics and morals in public service,' says a government spokesman.