When stress levels are high and anxiety grips, people turn inwards to find peace and positivity. This is what the country’s premier investigation agency, the CBI, has decided to do after it experienced an unprecedented low with the war between CBI director Alok Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana, vitiating the atmosphere in the agency.
The CBI has organised a three-day 'Art of Living' workshop over the next three days, for its officers and staff “to build synergy, competency and positive outlook”. Over 150 officers from the rank of inspectors upto the in-charge director Nageshwar Rao will attend the workshop that will be held in the CBI headquarters beginning Saturday.
The Art of Living Foundation of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar will be conducting the workshop under the Art of Living Synergy Programme, officials said. The decision to call in the experts on spiritual and mental healing has came amid the raging controversy engulfing the CBI and the war among top officials making it virtually impossible for the agency and it’s sleuths to function in a normal way.
The CBI’s internal note, circulated among its officers and staff, says, “The purpose of the workshop is to improve positivity,enhance synergy and generate a healthy atmosphere in the agency and motivate its staff to achieve their full potential”.
Sources in the CBI said the morale of its officers and staff probing piles of cases had dipped tremendously after the in-house raids, corruption allegations, arrest of its own officer, and midnight crackdown by the government, which finally sent the two top officers on leave, divesting them of their powers and functions .
The CBI headquarters also saw itself caught in the middle of a political slugfest after Congress president Rahul Gandhi organised a dharna outside the building. The common refrain was that the CBI’s investigators need to above board, withstand scrutiny and the agency should also be able to continue its work in a fair manner.
Even as the law would take its own course and the Supreme Court will decide on the fate of its top brass, what was immediately required was to purge the CBI headquarters of negativity, motivate its officers, give them a positive outlook and build a healthy atmosphere so that the agency can perform its day-to-day functions, said an official.
It is in this spirit that the CBI, under its new interim director, will come together to reduce anxiety, experience quietness of the mind and strive for greater energy levels when they practice the Art of Living.
