It's known that, following the appointment of Anil Kumar Singhal, an IAS officer, as the EO of TTD, actor and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan took a strong exception by tweeting this: "I am not against "North Indian IAS" officials taking charge of TTD. But would they allow a South Indian to take up the administrative position of such sacred shrines as Amarnath, Varanasi, Mathura, etc. When they don't allow South Indians to head such shrines, why should South Indians accept this?" he had tweeted.

IAS Association has slammed Pawan for the same. "IAS stands for Indian Administrative Service and we work in all States without any North/South/East/West/NE bias. Also it's unfair to classify TTD as a 'South Indian shrine. All Indians have faith & let's not build artificial walls," the Association replied to Pawan on Twitter.

Following this, Jana Sena Party's Vice President Mahendra Reddy issued a statement saying that his party stands for national unity and patriotism. He once again clarified the intent of Pawan's tweet.

Although Pawan has been tweeting about the so-called North-South "divide" for many weeks, this is for the first time that his party had to be on the defensive, thanks to a measured rejoinder from an apolitical body like the IAS Association.