In the present scenario, IAS are among those undermined frontline heroes who are acting up as steel resistance force in nation's fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Apparently, these frontline heroes are not being recognised on screens--they are working behind the scenes to deal with the public health crisis while their political masters are busy socialising.
Right from the principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, P.K. Mishra--assisted by Union health secretary Preeti Sudan who calls up state health secretaries every day-- at the Centre, there are many unsung heroes in the states.
As an instance, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray along with state health minister Rajesh Tope has surprised political critics, with the effective and efficient measures to tackle coronavirus crisis, however, the regional natives owe its success to state chief secretary Ajoy Mehta's directions to administrative response mechanism.
Apparently, Mehta's six-month extension, given during Devendra Fadnavis' ruling years is going to end in March, and now, the Thackeray government has written to the Centre for another extension to the chief secretary.
Moving to Rajasthan, additional chief secretary (medical health and family welfare) Rohit Kumar Singh is at the forefront of the Ashok Gehlot's government's fight against Covid-19.
In Odisha, V.K. Pandian, private secretary to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is another unsung hero working at the forefront to tackle coronavirus crisis in the state. Reportedly, Odisha was the first state to analyse the area-wise spread of people who returned from abroad in March and imposed a 40 per cent lockdown to curb the spread of disease.
In Punjab, Suresh Kumar, chief principal secretary to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh is among another upright bureaucrats, wholly working for the betterment of the society in lieu to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the state.
In Karnataka, three IAS officers are leading the fight in their capacity as in-charge of three war rooms--personnel and administrative reforms secretary Munish Moudgil, labour secretary P. Manivannan and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar.
However, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a former ‘Sushasan Babu’, was very late to wake up to the Covid-19 threat but has now formed a team of senior IAS officers to try to contain the spread of virus that could spoil his re-election prospects in the October- November assembly elections.
Similar story is going on in other states where IAS officers, from secretary to district magistrate levels, are working efficiently behind the scenes and acting like pillars of strength to their chief ministers—as also the Prime Minister at the Centre—who can’t bank on the ministers whose induction in the government was dictated by political compulsions and not by administrative considerations.