The people who pumped out the water need to thank the official that at least he made them do with a water pump. Because if he wanted he could have ordered them

The people who pumped out the water need to thank the official that at least he made them do with a water pump. Because if he wanted he could have ordered them to drain the whole dam using buckets, and they would have to do it. The sheer power the administration wields in a country like India is stuff of the legends. Dictators would envy at having a fraction of this sort of power. They are largely invisible, wield nearly unlimited power. With the stroke of a pen they can bring whole bridges into existence and have them vanish. There are industrialists who have committed suicide out of sheer torture subjected to them by the bureaucracy in India [1]. That is just the power and influence they wield. The money part is another thing that would blow the minds of anybody who isn't familiar with the Indian society. These days in as little as a decade, even the least ranking bureaucrat in the hierarchy can be worth up to $100 million. Their children are known to run think tanks and policy groups all set to shape policy decisions for decades to come. At this much power and influence, you are pretty much like a king of princely state domain in India. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._G._Siddhartha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._G._Siddhartha This letter detailed the unbearable pressure he was subjected to over the years and the harassment he faced under the "previous" Director General of Income Tax (Investigation) (referred to as DG in the letter).