Bickering bureaucrats dent government’s image
If their names and designations were blotted out, one would have assumed they were two politicians or college students having a go at each other and probably looked the other way. But they are not. They are two senior bureaucrats from Karnataka, Roopa D Moudgil of the IPS and Rohini Sindhuri Dasari of the IAS. The ongoing squabble between them has hogged all attention in the state of late. Eventually, on Tuesday, Moudgil, Managing Director, Karnataka State Handicrafts Development Corporation, and Sindhuri, Commissioner, Endowment Department, were transferred without a posting.
Clearly, their “misconduct” had embarrassed Karnataka’s BJP government at a time when the ruling party is preparing to face assembly elections. The spat in full public view is on a social media platform, timed with the ongoing Budget session. It fell out on Sunday when Roopa alleged Rohini’s involvement in corrupt practices, which she said were not adequately probed. Moreover, she posted Rohini’s personal pictures alleging that these had been sent to certain officers. Rohini, on her part, accused Roopa of having “lost her mental balance” and that her allegations—both in the professional and personal domains—were based on “personal hatred”.
Without getting into the roots of this “personal hatred” and irrespective of whether it was personal or professional, it is shocking how the two senior officers have gone about washing their dirty linen in public. Whatever the root cause of all this, a certain decorum must be followed to resolve differences. That appears to have been lost on both officers.
This has spilled over into political circles, embarrassing the ruling disposition. The issue came up for discussion in the Assembly, and the government got rattled after the opposition perceived it as “weak” for its inaction—not a preferred image in the run-up to the assembly polls. The opposition slammed Home Minister Araga Jnanendra over failing to discipline the two officers. That made him warn the officers of disciplinary action, citing a violation of service rules. The action finally came on Tuesday afternoon in the form of the two warring officers being transferred without a posting. But what kind of impact this would have on the state’s image, administration, and bureaucracy remains to be seen.