The Center on Tuesday asked the UPSC chairman to cancel the advertisement for lateral entry as per Prime Minister Modi's directive.

New Delhi: Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's directive, the central government on Tuesday asked the chairman of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to cancel the advertisement for lateral entry. Minister of Personnel and Training, Jitendra Singh wrote a letter to UPSC Chairperson Preeti Sudan expressing his strong belief in Prime Minister Modi's need to uphold the principles of fairness, social justice and quotas enshrined in the Indian Constitution. Especially when it comes to lateral recruitment.
Read the letter, “Prime Minister Modi strongly believes that the process of lateral entry should be aligned with the principles of equality and social justice enshrined in our Constitution, especially with regard to reservation provisions.
“Abolishing the advertisement would be a significant step forward in the pursuit of social justice and empowerment,” the letter continued.
The Center has highlighted the vital need to maintain social justice as enshrined in the Constitution with a view to balanced representation of able-bodied persons from disadvantaged groups in government posts. It is clear that these roles, which are often treated as special and given a 'single-cadre' designation, have so far been devoid of any reservation or quota system.

UPSC Lateral Admissions

In the past few days, there has been some friction between government officials and opposition parties over plans to include lateral entry into the bureaucracy. The concept is to bring in board professionals from outside the traditional circles of the civil service to serve in mid- to high-level positions. Some time ago, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) invited applications for 45 high-level jobs. The open positions – Joint Secretary, Director and Deputy Secretary – cover 24 ministries of the Central Government.
Individuals possessing requisite qualifications and relevant experience in various sectors including State and Union Territory Governments, Public Sector Undertakings, Research Institutes and Private Industry are welcome to apply for key leadership roles and Head of Department posts. There is a 13-point roster policy to ensure equal opportunities in public employment and universities. However, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) memo emphasized that there is no mandatory reservation for appointments on deputation. The current lateral entry policy for these roles comes as an alternative to the specific deputation process.

Opposite to lateral entry

Leaders of opposition parties said that lateral entry reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) is lacking. The Center on the other hand defends it as a means of bringing in special talent.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi condemned the lateral entry and accused the BJP government of only using it as a backdrop to hire officers loyal to the saffron party.
“Lateral entry is an attack on Dalits, OBCs and tribals. BJP's distorted version of Ram Rajya is trying to destroy the Constitution and take away reservation from Bahujan,” Gandhi said on social media platform X.

BJP's reaction?

The BJP has defended itself against the backlash by pointing out that the concept of lateral entry was initially instituted during the UPA-joint Congress government. Following Rahul Gandhi's comments, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav took to Twitter to accuse the Congress of double standards on the issue of lateral entry, considering the establishment during his tenure. Minister of State for DoPT Jitendra Singh highlighted the statistics, revealing a total of 63 lateral entry appointments in the last half-decade and currently there are 57 people in such posts in various ministries and departments.