Officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Association held a press conference at New Delhi on Sunday to counter the accusations levelled at the bureaucrats by the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi.

Speaking to reporters, IAS association’s Manisha Saxena said that the officers are not on strike as is being alleged by the government.

“The information that IAS officers in Delhi are on strike is completely false and baseless. We are attending meetings and all departments are doing their works. We are sometimes also working on holidays,” she said.

“Let us do our work. We are feeling frightened and victimised. We are being used for completely political reasons,” said Varsha Joshi, another member of the IAS Association.

Members of the Association said that the officers “feel threatened” under the current atmosphere created by the AAP leadership. Their statement came even as AAP supporters and leaders took out a protest march in the national capital. CPI-M leaders, too, joined them in the protests.

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“All meetings are on record. We are attending all statutory meetings,” informed the officers.

Adding that they are completely neutral when it comes to politics, the IAS officers said that they “neither are we working at anyone’s behest nor do we have any political leanings” alluding to the Delhi government’s repeated accusations that the officers are acting on the orders of the Centre.

“We are apolitical. Irrespective of the government in power, we do our jobs. We have never been required to come out in the open and clarify our stand. We are answerable only to the law and constitution,” said Saxena.

“There has been a lot of hue and cry about the doorstep delivery of ration but no file relating to this scheme has been received by the food and civil supplies department. Claims that desilting of drains have been hampered due to strike is false. We have moved a file to the CM, we asked for a date to meet him and we have also got a date,” she reportedly added.

Joshi, who is the Transport Commissioner, claimed that she was being attacked personally.

“It’s damaging my personal reputation. I have been targeted by social media handles of a certain political party in an unfair manner,” she said.

Recollecting the alleged attack on Delhi’s Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash on 19 February inside the home of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by AAP’s MLAs, the officers said that they feel unsafe in such situations.

When asked why they do not take security guards along with them, the officers said that the idea of taking security personnel inside meetings is absurd.

The IAS Association took the offensive to the AAP government stating that they have lost confidence and “no one has taken any action to build our confidence”.

“We will not attend meetings at the cost of personal security and dignity,” they said, adding that the officials are “working overtime to ensure that public do not suffer in this abnormal situation”.