The squabble over the use of the abbreviation ‘IFS’ is silly and redundant. Both, the Indian Forest Service and the Indian Foreign Service, can use it as their areas of operation are different

For the last 30 years or so, the abbreviation ‘IFS’ is being used in Government correspondences for both, Indian Forest Service and Indian Foreign Service. The forest service is an all-India service like the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS), whereas foreign service is Group A of the Central civil services of the executive branch of the Government of India, like the Indian Revenue Service etc.

Recently, however, an amusing correspondence has been going on among the External Affairs Ministry, the Department of Personnel and Training and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change as the Indian Foreign Service considers itself older than the Indian Forest Service and hence had objected to the latter using the abbreviation IFS. It wants to have the sole use of the abbreviation .

In this regards it will be interesting to remember an incident that happened with one of my batchmates while we were in probation at the Indian Forest College now known as the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA). Once former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, while meeting this probationer from his constituency in the month of June asked him how many forests he had seen so far in his training and what is their condition. The probationer was surprised and gathered the courage to question how the Prime Minister asked him straight about the forests as soon as he entered his room. He gathered the courage and asked him how he knew that he is in the forest service.

The Prime Minister said, “After seeing your visiting card and after noticing your dress I could guess that you are an Indian Forest Service officer because a foreign service officer would have come to meet me in full suit-tie with sweating in his face in this scorching summer.”

This story can be linked in a humorous manner with the way two cadres position themselves before the civil society. Recently, the officers of the foreign service have raised a hornet’s nest by writing to the department of personnel that the abbreviation IFS should only be written for the Indian Foreign Service as the service is older than the Indian Forest Service who are also using the same abbreviation. The department of personnel had in turn written to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change for their views.

Indian diplomats are known for ‘fuddy-duddy’ style of language and have created a funny situation for the Government to appropriate the name IFS for their service. There is a big difference between the natures of both these services. The Indian Forest Service is an all-India service whereas the Indian Foreign Service is a central Group ‘A’ service. As such, there is no need for the diplomats to usurp the abbreviation IFS as their clientele are different.

The abbreviation IFS is in use for both the services since a long time by the Union Government as well as various State Governments and it can be easily deciphered by seeing the context of the use for which service it is being used. The fact is that Indian Foreign Service, most of the time, is communicating with foreign Governments and with other Ministries at the Centre and States and while corresponding with other offices the need for use of this abbreviation is not common.

On the other hand, this abbreviation for the Indian Forest Service is used mostly by the State Governments and largely by the common people in the districts, sub-divisional towns and in about 170,000 villages near the forests. The department of personnel of late has been writing IFoS for the forest service in its communications and some time IFS also. Now consider the funny picture of phonetics it will generate all over the country with different style of pronunciations.

What the majority of people in India in districts and sub-divisional towns/villages will pronounce this word IFoS. It will be very funny phonetic of “Ifoosh” officer such and such did such thing to another “Ifoosh” officer. The whole character of the service will change in the funny abbreviation.

 Now let us examine this from the perspective of correct historical view and of course common sense. The Indian Foreign Service was created in 1946 by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru by largely handpicking officers without any competitive examination and many of the people of princely States were rehabilitated in the service. A few years later it was made part of the IAS examination and for many years it was the preferred service of the top rankers.

The Indian Forest Service was constituted in 1867 after the creation of forest department in 1865 under the British Government in India and it was then known as Imperial forest service and the abbreviation IFS was used for this service since then. The officers were trained in Britain till Indian Forest College was set up. The Imperial forest service was for European only until the recruitment of Indian started and it became Indian Forest Service in 1920 with the recruitment of four Indians. At that time there was no foreign service as the foreign affairs were directly under the control of British and British India Government.

The subject forest was transferred from Federal list to State list after the enactment of Government of India Act 1935 and the recruitment for Indian Forest Service was discontinued after 1932 until it was revived in 1966. What is noteworthy to mention is the fact that Imperial forest service Officers who were recruited in 1932 continued to serve till early 60s and the IFS abbreviation was used by and for them. So, historically, the abbreviation belongs to the forest service. The Indian Forest Service Association had raised the issue and demanded that the abbreviation for their services should be retained as the acronym IFoS would create a big confusion all over India.

This Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had given a detailed justification for using the abbreviation IFS for the Indian Forest Service citing historical facts of uninterrupted use of this abbreviation for the forest service Officers since 1866. The Ministry had argued that the foreign service should use the acronym IFoS or IFgS in the same patter Indian postal service is using IPoS instead of IPS as all-India service is using it.

This writer would suggest that the name, Indian Foreign Service, is contradictory in itself and is an oxymoron considering the use of the word ‘Indian’ as well as ‘foreign’. The better name of the service should be Indian Diplomatic Service or Indian External Affairs Service to make it more meaningful for the diplomats like forest service sounds.

Till such time both the services could use this abbreviation as the areas of operation of both the services are totally different and so is the context in which it is used in the Government correspondences. It is not an issue worth quibbling after all, the days of victorian English are over and people can easily decipher the context of the use of IFS abbreviation even if it is used for both the services.

(The writer is former Principal Secretary, Government of Tripura, and chairman of Foundation for Integrated Resources Management)