Thursday, February 13th, 2025

Opinion: Government’s U-turn on lateral entry, compulsions of coalition era or pressure from opposition

Author: Ruchi Gupta

The uproar over lateral entry in UPSC has forced everyone to think. The government had proposed lateral entry for 45 posts, but had to withdraw it after opposition from the opposition. The opposition said that the government is trying to end reservation. This whole matter started after the formation of the new government on June 4. The government had talked about appointing experts through lateral entry on 45 posts. The provision of reservation was not applicable on these posts. The opposition immediately objected to this and called it a conspiracy to end reservation. Opposition parties gave the example of the 2015 Bihar elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when the BJP had to bear the brunt of its anti-reservation image.

First the government defended itself and later cancelled the recruitment

The government initially defended its decision. It cited the example of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was appointed through lateral entry in the Congress government. But under increasing pressure from the opposition, the government had to bow down and withdrew its proposal. This entire episode raises many serious questions. Does the government really need experts? Are merit and reservation opposed to each other? Is it necessary to distinguish between political appointments and bureaucracy?

What was the government’s argument?

The government said that it needed lateral entry to bring expertise in administration. But the opposition said that the government already has many ways to gain expertise in the form of advisors, committees and consultants. The opposition also said that the real challenge in administration is not technical knowledge but political understanding, setting priorities and building consensus. And this work cannot be done by any temporary appointment.

Debate on merit vs reservation

In this entire controversy, once again an attempt was made to pit merit and reservation against each other. BJP has already been accused of being anti-reservation, and this decision has further strengthened this perception. The reality is that merit and reservation are complementary to each other, not opposite. It is also not clear why the government felt the need to bypass the existing recruitment process for most of the posts, such as shipping, road transport, social welfare, etc. If the government finds the existing system inadequate to solve these issues, then the problem is much bigger than these 45 posts.

The government retaliated to the allegations of the opposition

The government had released a list of some names in response to the opposition’s allegations. All of these were political appointments. The opposition said that the government is mixing bureaucracy and political appointments. This entire episode is proof of the fact that in coalition politics, the government will have to take decisions more thoughtfully. Now the government will have to take care of not only its own opinion but also the opinion of its allies.

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