‘I challenge Smita Sabharwal to beat me in Civils’: Differently-abled IAS mentor Bala protests comments on PWD quota

Telangana: “I am asking IAS officer Smita Sabharwal to resign and write Civils exams with me and beat my score. I will prove that a differently-abled can score better marks than her. Not just me, I have students who are visually impaired and can write Civils competing with her,” said Bala Latha Mallavarapu.

Bala Latha is a former bureaucrat who trains civil service aspirants and she challenged the controversial statements made by Smita Sabharwal on the differently-abled competing to become IAS officers.

Senior Telangana IAS officer Smita Sabharwal’s diatribe questioning the rationality of induction of persons with disabilities (PWDs) into civil services has evoked a sharp response from the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD).

‘Don’t show sympathy on the differently-abled’

Latha, a differently-abled woman who runs the CSB IAS Academy, demanded an apology from Smita within 24 hours and warned of a protest at Tank Bund in case of no response.

In a post on X, Smita wrote, “As this debate blows up – with all due respect to differently-abled. Does an airline hire a pilot with a disability? Or would you trust a surgeon with a disability? The nature of IAS is field work, long taxing hours, and listening firsthand to people’s grievances – which requires physical fitness. Why does this premier service need this Quota in the first place!”

Bala gave an example of how Stephen Hawking became a renowned physicist and asked the bureaucrats not to show sympathy for the differently-abled.

Speaking to the media at the Somajiguda Press Club, Bala questioned how a senior IAS officer could make such comments about the differently-abled. “We don’t need any sympathy or special needs. We strive hard to top in Civils. Smita Sabharwal’s father is an IAS, her husband is an IPS. She passed civils with all such facilities.”

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy should take action on her comments, she added.

“Is it enough to have beautiful people as IAS and gym trainers as IPS? Mental fitness is very important. Differently-abled who scored top ranks in Civils are great people. It is very wrong to make negative comments on such people. Will private sectors come forward to give jobs to them if such comments are made by Government officers?” Bala asked.

Further responding to the outage on social media, in another post, Smita said, “See a lot of outrage on my timeline. I suppose addressing the elephant in the room gets you that reaction. Would request the Rights Activists to also examine why this quota has still not been implemented in the IPS/IFoS and certain sectors like defence. My limited point is that the IAS is no different.”

The comments made about the differently-abled by the IAS officer come after the controversy over probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar allegedly forging disability certificates to clear the Civil Services exam.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) said that it would conduct a detailed and thorough investigation into any misdemeanours by Puja Khedkar.