The seventh central pay commission (CPC) has upheld the principle of equality between the IAS and other All India Services. It has recommended that the "edge" enjoyed by the IAS, both in terms of pay and promotion, should be removed. It has also said that the central staffing scheme for competition between IAS and other All India Services - which includes the Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) - should be opened to give all an equal chance to top posts at the Centre. The report may disappoint IAS officers who have been pushing for retaining their "edge", not only before the commission but even in the open social media fora. As many as 200 IAS officers wrote letters some time ago to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) against any move to grant parity to other services with them. In the last few weeks, as other services hit back at this move by the IAS, the battle took an ugly turn on social media with regular exchange of jibes