Monday Mirchi : A top gun who lets his work speak

Few top guns in the Police Department manage to maintain the mystique about them. They either court or are sucked into controversies.Telangana Director-General of Police Mahender Reddy, whose tenure is about to end, continues to keep himself away from media glare. Unlike most of his peers who have been media-friendly, Mahender Reddy has surprised many circles by keeping a low profile. Media houses are hoping to get his time, but the DGP says:”Let our work speak”. Bureaucratic circles are discussing how the senior IPS officer may be having political aspirations. They seem to know about the calm before the storm.

Blue-eyed boy among babus

Nirmal district has faced floods and issues concerning IIIT Basara, with even District Collector Musharraf Faruqui being caught in controversies. Still, none of these issues seems to be a blot on his escutcheon. He continues to be in the good books of his political bosses. In fact, very rarely netas use epithets to describe in glowing terms bureaucrats mired in controversies. However, Minister K T Rama Rao, during his recent visit to IIIT, Basara described Musharraf as “sincere”, a “sports person”, and recalled that they had both worked together directly during the official’s stint in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. Well Musharraf seems to be the blue-eyed boy among the Collectors. As reported in this column, he once got a rare opportunity to make a presentation at the Chief Minister’s conference about his initiative viz. sports centers at villages, and earn brownie points.

Ratio, map and representation

The map is never the territory; still, a map has to be truly representative of the state or union territory it is purported to be. Telangana Chief Minister’s secretary Smita Sabharwal, who is active on social media, learned this the hard way. Aside from the negative comments on some of her posts, she recently drew flak for using a map that netizens found to be distorted. The searing condemnatory comments on social media prompted her to apologise and delete the map along with the related tweet.On the occasion of Dasara festival, Smita Sabharwal had posted the tweet with the map in question to illustrate the male to female ratio in various states. She mentioned that Amma is worshiped with devotion in all the states; yet, the ratio of women to men is different in the states. In the offending map, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi were shown as states where the population of women was less compared to that of men. Netizens went beyond that and saw red because Kashmir was not complete in the map posted by Smita.

Extended festive season with officiating CS

For bureaucrats in Telangana it is going to be an extended festive season. With Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar leaving for Kenya to participate in a meeting of the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics, officers are elated like students who enjoy when the teacher is on a vacation.While officials are discussing the Chief Secretary’s vacation in Kenya, festivities are around with officiating CS Arvind Kumar. Somesh Kumar has more than a year to retire; however, his locum tenens suggests who the front-runner is in the race for the next CS.

Another babu in line to become neta

These days babus make no bones about their political ambitions. Andhra Pradesh Education Department advisor and IAS officer A Murali has resigned from his post professedly to mend matters in his native state Telangana. A Telangana cadre officer, he had quit in 2019 miffed at being transferred by the Telangana government while serving as a Collector. After that, he was appointed as advisor to the Education  Department by the AP government. Murali started the Social Democratic Forum to fight for the development of education and health fields.In 2021 IPS officer RS Praveen Kumar also resigned and later joined BSP. Both Praveen Kumar and Murali, after their retirement, targeted the TRS government and made serious criticism. Now, Murali also is planning to enter politics.He may join BSP or Aam Admi Party, going by his aides’ reading of the situation. In his latest resignation letter, Murali mentioned that his services were required to improve conditions relating to education and health fields in Telangana.

-Yours truly