The Union Public Service Commission on Tuesday withdrew its advertisement for recruiting public servants through lateral entry on a contract basis.
This came hours after Union minister Jitendra Singh wrote a letter to the commission’s chairperson Preeti Sudan, urging her to cancel the recruitment.
The letter was written at the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Singh is the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Since Sunday, Opposition parties and a Bharatiya Janata Party ally – the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) – have objected to the Union Public Service Commission’s August 17 advertisement calling for the recruitment of 45 joint secretaries, directors and deputy secretaries across 24 Union ministries.
Opposition parties claimed that the government was conspiring to undermine reservations in public sector jobs for marginalised communities by filling the posts through lateral entry.
However, Singh’s letter to Sudan clarified that the appointment of public servants through lateral entry had been endorsed in principle by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, which was constituted in 2005 and chaired by former Union minister Veerappa Moily.
At the time, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government was in power.
The recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission in 2013 also supported lateral entry, Singh said.
“However, both before and after that there have been many high-profile cases of lateral entrants,” Singh said. “Under earlier governments, posts as important as that of Secretary in various ministries, leadership of UIDAI [Unique Identification Authority of India] etc, have been given to lateral entrants without following any process of reservations.”
Singh said that members of the “infamous National Advisory Council used to run a super-bureaucracy that controlled the prime minister’s office”, adding that it is important for the current government to follow the constitutional mandate of social justice while recruiting public servants.
The National Advisory Council was established during the first United Progressive Alliance government in 2004 to advise former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. It was dissolved in 2014.
“Since these positions have been treated as specialised and designated as single-cadre posts, there has been no provision for reservation in these appointments,” the minister said. “This aspect needs to be reviewed and reformed in the context of the Hon’ble Prime Minister's focus on ensuring social justice”.
The prime minister believes that the process of lateral entry must be aligned with the principles of equity and social justice enshrined in our Constitution, particularly concerning the provisions of reservation, Singh said.
“For the Hon’ble Prime Minister, reservation in public employment is a cornerstone of our social justice framework, aimed at addressing historical injustices and promoting inclusivity,” he added.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Sunday that the decision to hire public servants through lateral entry was an “anti-national step”, claiming that the quotas for the marginalised communities were being “openly snatched”.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, on Monday, accused the Congress of being hypocritical by opposing the move. It claimed that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance regime had mooted the idea of lateral entry in 2005 and that the current National Democratic Alliance government had only made the process more transparent.
On Monday, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) said that the lateral entry to posts under the Union Public Service Commission was “completely wrong”.
Party president and Union minister Chirag Paswan said that his party was not in favour of such appointments.
“Wherever there are government appointments, the provisions of reservation must be followed,” he said. Paswan also said that the manner in which the controversy had come to light was concerning since his party is part of the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.
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