It's not the first time that a senior police officer or a bureaucrat has touched the feet of a senior political leader or a minister. But it's also not the first time that a debate has ensued over the issue. The recent most person to draw the ire is Siddipet district collector P.Venkatarami Reddy who touched the feet of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Babu touches CM feet at the event. Dist Collector P Venkatrami Reddy fall in the feet of CM in presence of chief secretary and others during the
— Aashish (@Ashi_IndiaToday) June 20, 2021
inaugurate of Siddipet Collectorate. Siddipet is the home Dist of #KCR and his nephew and State finance minister Harish Rao. #Telangana pic.twitter.com/86sB2OtP6c
The incident, which took place on Sunday at an official event, triggered a row while the opposition criticised the act. The collector touched the feet of Rao to seek his blessings during an inauguration of a building. After the inauguration of the building, the Chief Minister as part of a ritual made collector Reddy sit on a chair. It is when Reddy rose from the chair and he bent over to touch the CM's feet even as he tried to stop him.
The incident took place in the presence of several other senior bureaucrats including Chief Secretary M.Somesh Kumar. After the video went viral and Reddy was criticised for compromising the self-respect of IAS cadre officers to please the Chief Minister, Reddy defended himself by saying that CM Rao was like a father figure to him.
In a statement issued later, Reddy said, "To seek blessings of elders during auspicious occasions is part of Telangana's culture and nothing new. I took the blessings of the CM who is like a fatherly figure, on the occasion of Father's Day. Do not make unnecessary issue out of this." Congress leader Sravan Dasoju called the act 'obnoxious' and alleged that Reddy was one of the bureaucrats enslaved by the CM.
Same act, similar context
This is not the first time that touching the feet of a senior political leader or a minister has not gone well with the public. In 2013, a senior IPS officer kneeled down to touch the feet of Samajwadi Party's general secretary and MP Ram Gopal Yadav. After the ruckus the incident created, IPS officer SSP Ajay Mohan Sharma was questioned over it. He first denied the incident and later said he was trying to keep hordes of people away from Yadav.
About the same incident, Yadav had a different explanation at a press conference, "In India, we have this tradition of touching the feet of our elders to seek their blessings. There is no harm in a police officer seeking the blessings of someone he looks up to."
In 2019, a senior IPS officer touched the feet of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her visit to the seaside town of Digha, Kolkata. The video went viral with trolls and critics not far behind. BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya commented, "What kind of democracy is this?"
