Monday, 01 April 2024 | in Guest Column
GUEST COLUMN
VK Bahuguna
There are more than 45 organised Group A Services in the country recruited and managed by the Central Government. These include three all India services viz Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian Forest Service (IFS). All other Group A services are Central Services like Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Revenue Service (IRS) etc. In official dealings both the Forest and Foreign Services were using the acronym IFS for a long time. The Indian Forest Service has been using this acronym since 1867 when it was created as Imperial Forest Service by the British which later on became Indian Forest Service after 1920 when the recruitment of Indians started in the service. The Indian Foreign Service was created only in 1946 when the then Prime Minister handpicked individuals he knew or wanted to extend favour to and rehabilitate the people close to princely states after their merger in the Indian union. After 1952 the regular recruitment through civil services competitive examination started along with other services. This service for many years was the first choice of successful candidates due to the glamour associated with it. The Indian Forest Service when created by the British was also much sought after by many who liked to explore nature and many from well to do English families and several having had proximity with the royal family of Britain joined it and did commendable work in laying out foundation of scientific management of forests in India as well as in other parts of the empire. The officers were initially trained in Oxford and Edinburgh and later on at the Indian Forest College, Dehradun. Considering the hardship the forest officers till the second royal pay commission used to get Rs 200 more than the ICS as difficult area allowance.
The forest service recruitment, however, was discontinued in 1932 in anticipation of reform because of the transfer of subject to the provinces after the enactment of Government of India Act 1935 which is the precursor of our modern constitution. The service was however revived in 1966 when it was again created by the efforts of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The service acronym IFS was continuously used in official communications and otherwise till revival of the service and thereafter. However, the service did not get media attention for quite some time. The Ministry of External affairs in the year 2017 wrote to the Department of Personnel and Training that the acronym IFS should only be used for the Indian Foreign Service. By writing on this matter the Ministry of External Affairs thus created an unnecessary and uncalled for controversy on this innocuous matter. The Indian Forest Service Association took up the matter with their cadre controlling authority the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change. The Ministry of Environment then wrote a letter to the Personnel Ministry giving historical evidence of the use of this acronym by the forest officers in an uninterrupted manner since the year 1866.
But the department of Personnel did not accept the arguments of the Ministry of Environment and Forests and instead vigorously started using the acronym IFoS for the officers of Indian Forest Service in all their communications. Even the Minister of State for Environment had written a DO letter to his counterpart asking for restoration of the acronym for the forest service. The two IFS services are quite different. Whereas, the Forest Service is an All India Service like IAS and IPS and serves the Centre as well as State cadre, the Foreign Service is a Central service and only posted under government of India and abroad in the embassies. In fact, there was no need to rake up this issue at all as the acronym was in use by both and it does not have any legal sanctity and conflict. The department of Personnel had not acted in a fair manner and brushed aside the historical facts submitted by the Ministry of Environment and sided with the External Affairs Ministry. This has raised a question mark on the sanctity and fairness of these high offices which are supposed to be fair and honest in deciding things. It has also raised a question mark on our political leaders who are very much guided by biased views of certain bureaucrats who see and twist things to their liking due to inter-services rivalry, more so when the forest officers have no day to day interaction with the Prime Minister who is the ultimate arbitrator in such issues. This writer has recently attended a workshop on Himalayan disasters where it was unequivocally demanded by the participants that forest conservation and geology must be the focus of any planning in the hills to avoid disasters. But the geologists are never part of any integral planning and forests lack importance except lip service. Society has to junk the colonial syndrome of power and unless our officers and leaders have hangers on they feel small. It is because of this that most of our leaders suffered from the ‘red light syndrome’. Thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision, these red lights atop cars, which was nothing but a comic strip and an audacious symbol of threat to people on the road and travelling in other vehicles, were ended. The stealing of the acronym IFS from forest service is reflective of this mentality of proclaiming a false sense of superiority over others by taking advantage of their position.
In this article, I want to request the Prime Minister that though the career values of forest service is definitely less compared to IAS in the eyes of the people and the powerful, if the country has to progress and its food, water and health security and climate vulnerability has to be tackled forest management and forestry professionals deserve much more attention than the biased bureaucracy and our political masters should accord it due value. A forest officer is a composite expert and deserves more attentive use of its multifarious skills with scientific temper. It is true for all other services also and the need for the reform and mindset is essential in national interest. It is when decisions are taken like this stealing of the acronym from forest service with impunity by the mandarins of Personnel department that the entire gamut of decision making makes a mockery of the fairness in governance. After all the forest officers have also reconciled to this as they know after all ‘might is right’ in the Central secretariat and that it is better to make peace and avoid antagonism.
(The author is former director general of Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education. Views expressed are personal)
