Bureaucrats are supposed to be a political. Those who violate this elemental principle often end up paying a heavy price, particularly upon regime change, with rival politicians owning or disowning them while settling scores among themselves. The recent debates in the Telangana Assembly over the management of Krishna waters and the White Paper on Irrigation triggered a war of words between the leaders of ruling and opposition parties with references to the babus concerned as ‘your’ bureaucrat and ‘my’ bureaucrat. Although Congress leaders named all the bureaucrats who had served as the Chief Secretary or as the Irrigation Secretary during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi regime, it almost seemed like Smita Sabharwal’s name was deliberately used multiple times obviously because she was the CM secretary too. Not to be outdone, BRS leaders referred to the current Irrigation Secretary Rahul Bojja as ‘your’ secretary. The best part was that, despite professing ‘it is not good to drag officials’, leaders of both parties kept naming (and shaming) officials. While officials were just doing their job, and politicians were scoring points; Smita Sabharwal became subject of clickbait content for YouTube channels.
