Telangana officials draw flak for touching KCR's feet

Telangana is witnessing a trend of top bureaucrats touching the feet of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, seeking “good fortunes”.

State’s director of public health and family welfare Dr G Srinivasa Rao, the face of Covid-19 mitigation in Telangana in the last two and half years, is the latest to touch KCR’s feet wanting his blessings.

In a video clip widely circulated on social media, Rao bowed to KCR, pleading with folded hands at an official meeting recently in Pragathi Bhavan, the CM’s palatial office-cum-residence, to virtually inaugurate eight new medical colleges in the state. Atleast two such cases were recorded in public in the recent past, while political observers, retired babus say the number could be high behind closed doors.

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In 2021, two IAS officers, administrators of two districts, bent in reverence before KCR touching his feet during the inauguration of the new collectorate complexes in Siddipet and Kamareddy.

One of them Venkatrami Reddy, a state public service officer conferred the IAS tag in 2007, submitted his resignation within months and was straightaway made a MLC by KCR.

Calling it a disgraceful act lowering the stature of the All India Services, the Congress party had then even complained to the centre.

Now, Rao’s apparently excessive veneration last week – presenting a flower bouquet to the CM, handing him a chit, pleading with folded hands and touching feet twice within a minute, while surrounded by ministers, legislators and several officials created buzz in bureaucratic and political circles.

Rao’s controversial approach comes ahead of the Telangana elections next year, amid a rife rumour that he expects TRS ticket to contest from Kothagudem constituency.

However, Rao has defended his deed, stating KCR as a fatherly figure to him and “Telangana’s Bapu.”

“We got a 500 bedded specialty hospital here (because of KCR). What is wrong in touching the feet of such a great person, because of whom Telangana state became a reality and is moving ahead in development,” said Rao at one caste group congregation in Kothagudem on Sunday. Expressing strong disapproval, Dr R V Chandravadan, a retired senior IAS, alleged that bureaucracy is becoming meek under the TRS regime. “While some seek favors, important positions, some operate under the fear that they could be relegated to unimportant posts and made irrelevant. The devotion of few officials is becoming brazenly public,” Chandravadan, who is now with the BJP, says.

A senior official in the CMO told DH that KCR does not encourage the act of feet touching. “It is not uncommon, people seeking favours do it but it looks odd when top officials resort to such a method. The CM takes a step back in such situations while gently gesturing to them to stand up,” the official says.