My PPI Hat

“GOOD TO GREAT” AND “BUILT TO LAST

Many professionals like you and I may have read the above two books. Yes, these are the titles of two very successful books, which influenced a number of professionals round the world. Being the professional’s party of India, we too hope to use established practices of good governance when members of our party reach the parliament, commencing 2014. We want to accelerate our pace of activity to achieve a profile of Good intentions to a Great Party- not as seen by us but perceived to be so by all those who come in contact with us.

Pessimism and cynicism are not hallmarks of Winners. “Winners do not quit and quitters don’t win”, so goes an old saying. We believe that all of you who are willing to contribute your precious time and resources are our greatest assets. We have a long way to go and we need to rapidly increase our visibility and reach.

At the last Core group+ meeting held at Pune, we outlined some practical steps that need to be initiated. We wanted to prove to ourselves and later to others that these are indeed doable provided there is a will. And so we did. We took the first few steps. The Peepli Live first show was a grand success. Nothing but good teamwork and application of management practices that we expect from our elected representatives were on display. The fist few steps to create a Foundation for Professional Governance were initiated. This gives us the freedom to operate where a political party cannot.

Thus emerged a spit free campaign with student participation, a teaser, and a street play all culminating in the final flag hoist on 15 August.

In quick succession came the Common Man- a play base on the six decades of political satire- based cartoons of RK Laxman. Did we know that the play would turn out to be the best advertisement for PPI? Not in our wildest dreams did we imagine. The impact of our 3-minute movie on PPI followed by a short speech on PPi was an ideal introduction to the mono act which received a standing ovation. A few tears did run down the cheeks of the audience, which comprised of large number of college students too-when the common man with a bewildered look summed up the fears caused by 60 years of poor governance and neglect and the prospects of anarchy and chaos.

This provided the right environment to schedule a convention on 16 September with the active participation of well-known social activists and mass participation of students drawn from leading Management schools of Pune.

What began as a drizzle has already become a shower and we await the floods to sweep away the unenlightened people in politics from the main stage.

“We can” are words not the sole property of Barak Obama. We too can.

What about our leaders in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, New Delhi/Gurgaon/NOIDA etc? We need to identify our constituency heads that will fight the election for which they now have FOUR years. We want winners to lead all our constituencies even as the quitters fade away. Let us join hands. Let us reach out and win friends. Then and only then can we proclaim that we are indeed “Built To Last”