Between the devil and the deep blue sea: Why Andhra bureaucrats are an unhappy lot

He added that the TDP’s attempts to twist the truth and paint a false picture of the government should be resisted. Otherwise, he warned, the public might get the wrong impression.

But that is easier said than done, as far as the bureaucrats are concerned.

“Even if we hold a press meet to state the facts, Opposition parties and also a section of media pick up points that are often irrelevant to tarnish the government’s image. It doesn’t stop with just one press conference. We just caught between two aggressive poles,” a senior bureaucrat told South First.

The babus are also concerned that Jagan has said that it his final warning to those who skirt controversies and avoid rebutting claims made by the Opposition and the media.

And there is good reason for them to be concerned. The YS Jagan dispensation has dumped senior bureaucrats it has been unhappy with bang in the middle of their terms, such as then chief secretary LV Subramanyam and then DGP Gautam Sawang.

In a recent Cabinet meeting, Jagan even slammed a few ministers for not being aggressive enough in countering the “yellow media” that frequently dragged the names of his family members into controversies. He even threatened to drop them from the Cabinet if they didn’t begin taking on the TDP and kits media aggressively.

If such is the fate of Cabinet ministers, what to speak of bureaucrats!