HYDERABAD: An undeclared ceasefire seems to have been called in the warfare between the IAS lobby and the CBI.Since the civilian babus’ fulminations against the CBI and its joint director V V Lakshminarayana last week, the agency did not summon any IAS officer for questioning in the three high-profile cases it is investigating. On Friday, it did seek some clarifications from former chief secretary Mohan Kanda but the notice to the top mandarin had been sent out much before the first shots were fired in anger by the IAS mavens last week. In return, the IAS fraternity has stilled its guns against the CBI.Sources in the CBI’s investigations disclosed to Express that after last weekend’s drama, agency bosses have reportedly decided to go slow on bureaucrats. Officially though, CBI HQ in New Delhi has said the “threats’’ being issued by IAS officers will not deter it from pursuing the cases in the state.“The CBI has decided to focus on politicians in the next few days, or even months. IAS officers may not be called for questioning, at least for now,’’ sources said.They said that though there were some more IAS officers, both serving and retired, needed for questioning this week, the CBI decided to refrain from inviting them, preferring to let the dust to settle from last week’s skirmish.The last IAS officer to be invited to answer questions was K Ratna Prabha, who went to the Dilkusha guest house on Feb. 4. A day prior to that, former chief secretary P Ramakanth Reddy and senior IAS officer Ajay Mishra were asked to come.Sources said that though the agency has named IAS officers L V Subrahmanyam and K V Rao (retired) in the Emaar chargesheet, the agency wants to take its own time to call for questioning.On the other side of the trenches, the IAS guns too have fallen silent since the lobby spoke loudly about taking their case to Union home minister P Chidambaram.“I have stopped giving interviews. Please excuse me,’’ is what Prasanta Mahapatra, secretary of the IAS Officers Association, told Express when contacted.Another senior officer said the association’s meeting last week and the rhetoric spouted in it were unwarranted.“As I look at it, there was no issue at all, be it vis a vis the CBI or ministers,” he said.
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