Role models for babus

In babudom, who is superior: IAS or IPS? The answer to this dicey question (like in the case of the primordial question: “Which came first — chicken or egg?”) is yet to be settled once and for all. Nevertheless, going by the gamut of administrative functions from the level of the Chief Secretary to that of the district collector, IPS officers do work with (or under) IAS officers. The tug-of-war between the broad divisions of the babudom has once again come to the centre-stage ahead of the upcoming elections with one IAS and three IPS officers contesting in the Telugu states. In Telangana, the BRS has given Lok Sabha tickets to an IAS officer and an IPS officer respectively: Venkatram Reddy is contesting from Medak and Praveen Kumar from Nagarkunool. Likewise, from Andhra Pradesh, two IPS officers are contesting: T Krishna Prasad is contesting on behalf of TDP from the Bapatla Lok Sabha seat. Former CBI officer JD Lakshmi Narayana had announced that he would contest from the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha seat. The update is that he is likely to contest for the Assembly seat instead. Whatever it be, bureaucratic circles are eager to know the political future of all these babus. Be it IAS or IPS, they can be models to other fraternal colleagues with political ambitions.