Don't call us Babu, it hurts, say IAS officers

What's in a name? Sometimes, a lot, and certainly for IAS officers. A majority of them is unhappy, rather angry, over the fact that they are often called "babu".

Babu is derogatory and portrays us negatively, believe IAS officers and other civil servants, who are often referred to with this term among the public and polity.

Such is the angst that some of them have started voicing their concern on social media. A young IAS officer, Shahid Choudhary, posted in Jammu & Kashmir, tweeted on Monday, "Word 'Babu' for Civil Servant appears as derogatory as 'Presstitute' for a Journalist. Responsible media must know respect is always mutual!"

Choudhary's post was retweeted by at least six civil servants till Monday night — Bhupendra Singh, who is a member of the IAS association; Ashish Vachhani, a Tamil Nadu Cadre IAS officer working with Asian Development Bank and posted in Manila; Prabhu N Singh, director of National Smart Grid, ministry of power; Alok, an adviser to Niti Aayog; and a civil servant who goes by the twitter name Shakespeare.

The top officers of the country primarily blame the media for this nomenclature. While the term has been in use for at least two decades now, the IAS lobby has started taking strong objection against it only recently.

Why now? "That's because the usage of the terms 'babu' and 'babudom' has gone up in the media in the last two to three years. Such is the impact that even ministers have started calling us 'babu' now," said Sanjay Bhusreddy, who is the secretary of the IAS Association.

"Citizens have also started ridiculing us on social media using the word babu, which hurts," said Dr Dinesh Arora (IAS), executive director, Rural Electrification Programme, ministry of power. And this seems to be of major concern to the IAS lobby as perception on social media is considered as "very important".

Coal secretary of India Anil Swarup also expressed his displeasure over the word. "Calling names doesn't help. It would be equally wrong to call all journalists 'presstitutes'," he added.

When pressed for reasons why they feel the word is derogatory, a Maharashtra cadre officer said, "Babu was used for the clerical class during the British period. There is no justification for using the same term for us."

Arora explained, "Babu is used for civil servants in a derogatory way. More than the reference, the portrayal of the community through caricatures, in which we are shown with huge belly and bundles of files on desk, is derogatory. This gives a perception that civil servants don't work at all."

"Several civil servants are doctors, MBAs and IIT graduates, who had better career options but they chose the civil services. However, due to such portrayal, the whole community is now being ridiculed on social media as well," he added.

Some of them are uncomfortable with the word 'bureaucrat' as well. The association insisted that bureaucracy is a "negative" word used to blame the entire community of civil servants for red-tapism and other wrong things in the system.

Dr Rajendra Bharud, an IAS officer posted in Maharashtra, said that the word babu also expresses gender bias. "This means people don't realise that women are in significant numbers in the administrative services."

So, what should be the ideal word to call them? "If not IAS officer(s), just call us civil servants. Respect our feelings," said Arora.

The IAS association has taken this matter up aggressively. Bhusreddy said, "There are good and bad people everywhere in all four pillars of democracy. Hence, using abusive language for the entire community of civil servants is not only unethical but also shows shallowness. For instance, we never used that popular abusive word (indirectly referring to presstitute) coined for journalists."

When pointed out that an IAS officer had indeed used that word for journos on social media and six others had retweeted his post, including a member of the association, and even the coal secretary has used the word, Bhusreddy claimed, "That would have happened because of a TV debate that was popularised on social media using the word babu. Otherwise, we desist using the word even for reference."