The recent BSNL controversy where resources were reportedly squandered in an elaborate exercise to impress visiting senior management has reverberated well beyond the telecom giant's offices. Sources indicate that the episode has sent a sharp, uncomfortable message to public  sector undertakings across India, where the culture of staging choreographed visits for top brass has long been an open secret. Officials in multiple PSUs are now quietly reassessing internal protocols around such visits. More significantly, a section of retired bureaucrats who helmed these organisations in the past is treating the incident as a moment of candid self-reflection, acknowledging that such performative culture flourished partly due to their own silence and, in many cases, active encouragement.