'Babus' know their "Babu" well

DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: Are the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers in Andhra Pradesh really peeved at what former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu allegedly remarked against them?Not really. For, they know the reality and what's exactly happening over the past four years in the state bureaucracy. After all, Chandrababu Naidu used to be dubbed the "Babus' Babu" during his nine-year stint as the Chief Minister since he maintained such a good rapport with the bureaucrats. So, the IAS men didn't really take the issue seriously though only the Mahbubnagar district Collector obliged the television news channels with an "on record" sound byte. While senior Collectors simply brushed the issue aside when scribes confronted them, the juniors looked puzzled. The Chief Minister's Office seized the initiative and spread word that many Collectors, during their one-on-one interaction with Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, expressed their "serious displeasure" over "Naidu's remarks." The Congress was also quick to react and castigate the former Chief Minister, with ministers K Rosaiah and Aanam Rama Narayana Reddy taking the lead. But IAS officers, as such, remained unfazed. "There is no smoke without fire, isn't it," a senior bureaucrat, who has been newly-elected as an office-bearer of the AP IAS Officers' Association, questioned, referring to the alleged remarks of Naidu. Bureaucrats are not cut off from the world, so to speak, and know pretty well the "ins and outs" of the administration. It has become rather an open secret that postings of IAS and IPS officers are coming with a certain "price tag" in the last four years. Any bureaucrat will tell who is calling the shots in the government in respect of the postings. "We will only be degrading ourselves if we speak about the happenings, particularly in the Chief Minister's Office, when it comes to the postings. Don't many of the incumbent district Collectors know how they landed in that job," the senior bureaucrat quizzed. Of late, there have been allegations of corruption against many IAS officers, including some "juniors" who hitherto used to be immune to such things. "Lobbying" has unwittingly become the buzzword with even the junior officers, who should get postings in the routine course, being forced to please the powers that be to land in a job. Two very latest examples, related to the posting of two IAS young officers, bear testimony to the goings-on in the government. By the way, the Invisible Crusaders -- the bunch of young IAS men trying to fight corruption from within -- have been keeping a watch on all happenings and preparing a dossier on the recent bureaucratic postings. They will strike at an opportune time.