New Delhi: Joining the ranks of a number of opposition leaders, Union Minister Chirag Paswan Monday became the first leader from within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to speak out against the Centre’s lateral entry scheme.
“My party’s stance on such appointments is absolutely clear. Wherever there are government appointments, the provisions of reservation must be followed. There is no ifs and buts in this,” the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) national president told news agency PTI, two days after the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) sought applications for 45 positions, including joint secretary, director and deputy secretary, through lateral entry.
“The way this information has come to light is also a matter of concern for me because I am a part of this government and have the platform to raise these issues,” he added. “Speaking on behalf of my party, we are absolutely not in favour of this. This is completely wrong, and I will raise this matter before the government.”
The UPSC’s decision is the largest ever recruitment sought by the Centre under its lateral entry scheme, which was announced in 2018 to deal with the “acute shortage” of IAS officers in the government, and increase domain expertise in governance.
With criticisms against the scheme now emerging from within the Modi government, it remains to be seen how the government responds to it.
ThePrint reached Paswan through calls for a comment, but he was unavailable. This report will be updated as and when a response is received.
Incidentally, this is not the first time that Paswan has joined opposition ranks to criticize a policy decision of a BJP government.
Last month, the Hajipur MP criticised the Uttar Pradesh government’s directive asking eateries along the route of the Kanwar Yatra to display the names of their owners, purportedly to clarify their religion.
While the Opposition has severely criticised the government for circumventing the provisions for reservation through lateral entry, the government has maintained that reservation does not apply on single posts.
“Since each post to be filled under this scheme is a Single Post, reservation is not applicable,” the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had said in its internal notings in 2018. The stand has been reiterated by the government on different occasions, including by then DoPT minister Jitendra Singh, in Parliament.
On Sunday, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi had come down heavily on the scheme, calling it an attack on Dalits, OBCs and adivasis. The Congress leader further accused the BJP of seeking to snatch reservations from ‘bahujans’.
Later, INDIA bloc leader and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said that his party would launch a nationwide movement against the scheme from 2 October if it was not rolled back.
Responding to the Congress’ attack, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the opposition party’s criticism of the lateral entry system in senior bureaucracy shows its “hypocrisy”, and sought to remind it that it was the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) which came up with the concept to begin with. The BJP-led NDA has only made it transparent, the I&B minister asserted.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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