Newly-appointed chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh government L V Subrahmanyam’s direct confrontation with Telugu Desam Party president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has created an embarrassing situation for the IAS officers in the state.
The IAS officers generally do not have any party affiliations, but act according to the directions of the ruling party. Those who appear to be pro-TDP all these years might appear pro-YSR Congress party, if it comes to power.
Except a few officials with vested interests and caste bias, majority of the IAS officers tend to maintain a neutral stand.
So, when Subrahmanyam took charge as the chief secretary under the directions of the Election Commission, the IAS officers in various positions have started reporting to him.
At the same time, they cannot ignore Naidu, who is still the chief minister as per the rule book.
Since Subrahmanyam and Naidu are in confrontation, they are not able to take a stand on either side, but they prefer to remain neutral.
That is precisely why when some senior IAS officers close to Subrahmanyam called for a meeting of the AP IAS Officers’ Association at Punnami Ghat guest house in Vijayawada in an attempt to condemn Naidu’s remarks against the chief secretary, not many of them attended the meeting.
Out of 184 members in the association, only 14 IAS officers came to the meeting, as a result of which it had to be cancelled for want of quorum.
Obviously, they did not want to antagonize Naidu by attending the meeting, which was said to have been convened at the behest of Subrahmanyam.
At the same time, they did not want to anger Subrahmanyam. So, they showed the excuse that they were busy with the post-election related work.
May be, they don’t want to get into trouble by attending the meeting, in case the TDP returns to power again!