The war between the Indian Foreign Service and Indian Forest Service officers over the usage of the acronym IFS for their respective cadre is escalating by the day as both have staked claim to IFS.
The issue precipitated after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) wrote to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in December seeking exclusive right to the usage of ‘IFS’ for its officers and IFoS for the Indian Forest Service.
It based its claim on the ground that the Indian Foreign Service came into existence in 1946 while the Indian Forest Service was created two decades later, in 1966.
However, the Indian Forest Service Association on Friday countered the MEA’s claim, citing various historical documents, including the ‘Government of India Press publication, 1928’ wherein the acronym IFS has been used for and by the Indian Forest Service officers across the States whose strength stands at 6,000. In contrast, the Indian Foreign Service cadre’s strength is 600, the association pointed out.
The association said for the public at large all over country ‘IFS’ always stood for its officers while the same acronym was used for Foreign Service officers who are posted only in Delhi with the MEA.
Hence, there was no domain overlap, it argued and demanded that status quo i.e. acronym of IFS for the Indian Forest Service be maintained. It suggested that for the Indian Foreign Service, a Central service, the acronym of IFoS or IFgS appears to be logical.
Expressing surprise over the MEA’s move to “precipitate a contentious issue” of what it considered as a “trivial non-issue” after more than five decades of co-existence (of the two cadres) in the country, the Indian Forest Service Association said in a letter, “It would be pertinent to consider first whether there is any adequate cause of action, whether the ambiguity of IFS stands for the Indian Forest Service or the Indian Foreign Service, whether it has been adversely affecting the cause of good governance and whether any public interest at all demands such a resolution of this issue.”
The association’s letter followed the DoPT query to the Environment Ministry, based on the MEA staking claim, to IFS. The Environment Ministry had sought comments from the Indian Forest Service Association in the matter.
In its letter to the Ministry, the association noted, “In the Indian context, for the public at large, especially in rural areas, which consists of more than 70 per cent of the country’s population, the mention of the acronym IFS does not convey any sense of ambiguity, it implies the Indian Forest Service only.
“This is because there is absolutely no domain overlap. Within India, the presence of the Indian Foreign Service is limited to the MEA in Delhi. Elsewhere all over the country, in the States and districts, they have no presence at all and the people know the IFS to stand for the Indian Forest Service only.”
Seeking to end the matter, the association also pointed out that in the diplomatic missions abroad, embassies and consulates, nobody seeks and needs to clarify which service the officer belongs to and IFS stands for the Indian Foreign Service only. “Thus for the large majority of the people there is no confusion and the acronym IFS is expanded and interpreted to mean Foreign or Forest depending on the context, place and position,” it stated in the letter.
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