![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/08\/25\/letter-19411_1787672113.png\")
<\/picture><\/div>\nTukaram Mundhe\u2019s decision to remove a white towel from his chair before a press conference has drawn attention online, but the gesture also brings back a familiar sight in Indian government offices: senior officials sitting on chairs covered with white towels.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief was seen entering a conference room where cameras and microphones had already been arranged. Before taking his seat, Mundhe removed the towel covering the chair and then sat down.<\/p>\n The action itself lasted only a few seconds. But it raises a question about a practice that has been part of the visual culture of government offices for decades: Why are white towels placed on the chairs of senior officials in the first place?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Where the \u2018white towel\u2019 comes from<\/strong><\/p>\n There’s no single government order that created this custom, no memo anyone can point to. The explanation most bureaucrats reach for is part hygiene, part hand-me-down.<\/p>\n Before air conditioning and paved roads reached most district offices, officers toured on horseback through heat and dust. A towel absorbed sweat, protected the furniture, and was cheaper to wash than upholstery.<\/p>\n Former bureaucrat Gurdeep Singh Sappal put it bluntly on X: \u201cWhite towels are a legacy of British era, when there were few roads, fewer cars and no ACs… British left, horses were sent away, but towels stayed!\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/08\/25\/qq_1787676812.gif\")
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