Lateral entry in bureaucracy comes crumbling down

The government formulates policies while the final call rests upon bureaucracy. Despite 78 years of Independence, the multitudes of policies rolled by central and state governments to help the poorer sections have not seen their best results. It is rather a shame that the charted policies often get stalled by officials before reaching the people.

Bureaucracy operates in a specific framework. People from backward communities are becoming Presidents, Prime Minister and Union Ministers of India. Some may get goosebumps over such bashing of conventional norms, but in reality, it serves the purpose only of subduing the opposition or taking the upper hand in political banter by gloating the morality card. There are paltry few representations in bureaucracy from lower middle class or the poor sections of the country and this needs to be addressed.

The news of UPSC attempting lateral entry into bureaucracy, which appoints civil servants at the top of the country's bureaucracy, will come as no shock to those who know about the bizarre reservation system existing in the country. Such reservation coups were frequent in universities and boards dominated by upper-caste officials.

Even when the backward communities and media point this out, the people concerned often try to justify it. However, this time, the lateral entry plan made by UPSC was thwarted in a timely manner by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. UPSC has withdrawn the advertisement related to the recruitment of 45 posts following the instructions of the Prime Minister's Office.

While NDA allies JD-U and LJP issued statements openly opposing it, Rahul Gandhi accused it of being a move against Dalit and OBC communities. Union Minister Jeetendra Singh then informed that he had instructed the UPSC Chairman to withdraw the advertisement.

UPSC has invited applications for 45 posts including 10 Joint Secretaries in 24 Ministries and 35 vacancies in Director and Deputy Secretary posts. If these 45 vacancies are considered one group, reservation will be required. To circumvent this crisis, the officials decided to publish the advertisement of vacancies in each ministry. A feeble defence would ensure that the case fails if moved legally against the advertisements.

There has been a move to appoint joint secretaries to the Home, Finance, IT and Steel departments. The UPSC lateral entry recruitment drive was made with the intention that not a single Dalit or OBC community member should get these posts. Lateral entry was approved in principle by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission set up in 2005 during the UPA government. The lateral entry system was devised to find and hire the best people from outside the government.

The conservative notion that only the upper castes have talent and brilliance has got rotten with time. However, this notion still rests intact within many elite minds, which will surely sabotage many pet projects of the government that intend to ward off poverty in India.