North Versus South.

Ah we have heard this before. But once again the rumour mills are working over time.

the North Indian and South Indian lobby stuff.

North versus South divide has taken over the bureaucracy in Gujarat with allegations being made that the South Indian lobby is getting stronger and reportedly sidelining IAS officers who are not South Indians.

Anonymous letters are being circulated claiming how North Indians and non South Indians are given a raw deal in Gujarat bureaucracy just because two top positions are being occupied by South Indians.

Fingers are being pointed at Chief Secretary D Rajagopalan and K Kailasnathan, principal secretary in the Chief Minister's office for promoting South Indian lobby.

The North-South divide and lobby always existed but now after the recent bureaucratic transfers, the North Indian lobby says they have been discriminated and not given good postings because Rajagopalan and Kailasnathan, the key officers in the bureaucracy are both South Indians and they want to promote "their people "only. (how sick>>!)

Non south Indians Indians who have recently been transferred include: Atanu Chakrobarty, H K Dash, A S Patel, Sujit Gulati, Bhagyesh Jha, AS Patel, Vipuy Mitra, Mrs V L Joshi, Ravi Saxena, R K TRipathy and others. South Indians who have been transferred include D J Pandian, Jagdeesan, V Thiru and others.

A senior Non South Indian officer however said that this is not true and the transfers have been purely based on merit. “Some corrupt IAS officers who are not happy are spreading lies and rumours of this North South lobby”.

Another officer claimed that not only only North Indians but everyone except South Indians were being discriminated. “The south Indian lobby has got very strong and have become unprofessional”, he claimed. According to him, the Non South Indian lobby is planning to write to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Minister Narendra Modi also in this regard.

Another officer says: this is not true. V S Gadhvi is not a south Indian and a gujarati and he heads Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation, Ditto with Tapan Ray who is not a south Indian but heads GSPC right now. Also Mr B K sinha is not a south Indian but has got ports after his deputation. Just like Shri J P Gupta also has got a good posting.

nb: we will try to post the anonymous letter on this blog soon as we scan it!!!!

and heres some more grapevine....

It is not only in Gujarat but the North Indian South Indian lobby issue is prevalent in Centre also. In delhi, at the moment, it is being talked about that only south Indians can get plum postings.

Also, some time back a North Indian IFS officer Mrs Veena Sikri had filed challenged why she was superceded and Nirupama Rao, a south Indian was made the foreign secretary.

Right now, even in Delhi, the top most posts are occupied by south Indians. For example, the main officer in the prime ministers office, is 63 batch officer T K A Nair. His deputy also is a south Indian, T K A Prasad, who is secretary to the prime minister. The Cabinet secretary of India is K M Chandrashekhar, a 70 btach officer who is again a south India. Home secretary G K PIllai, a 72 batch officer is also south Indian. Agriculture Secretary T Nand Kumar(72 batch) civil aviation secretary, M M Nambiar, coal secretary C Balakrishnan (both 74 batch), communication and information technology secretary P J Thomas, external affairs secretary Nirupama Rao(both 73 batch), health secretary K Sujatharao(batch 74), Information and broadcasting secretary Raghu Menon, Overseas India secretary K Mohandas, power secretary Harishankar Brahma are all south Indians. Even some important posts which are not IAS postings they say are dominated by south Indians only. For egample the ministry of science is headed by a scientist who is T Ramasami, agan a south Indian and similarly the unique identity project is headed by Nandan NIlekani, a Kannada from South India.

A senior IAS officer in Delhi said, “this issue is just being hyped up. There are over 63 crucial departments in Centre and there are people other than South Indians also heading it but because of vested interests and purpose of gossiping, this North and South lobby issue is being discsussed”.