Position and disposition

During elections, politicians sweat it out for months until the day of polling and then wait with bated breath until the last result of the polls is declared. Tension heightens for bureaucrats from this point. Those who had lorded it over others as empowered minions of the ruling party will see the ground under their feet shift with a regime change. Some senior bureaucrats who had blurred the fine line of distinction between functioning as administrator and acting as party functionary will feel the scorching heat of change in the government. The irony is that politicians tend to rely more on babus who sport, overtly or covertly, the badge of loyalty to the ruling party. At the end of the day, upon regime change, only the crop of such bureaucrats are replaced with far-reaching consequences. Realising this bitter truth, a junior bureaucrat in TS, which will shortly usher in a Congress government, commented: “Bureaucrats also have to learn ‘acting’ if they want a good position.” Position remains; what counts is their disposition!