Congress leader and leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has undoubtedly succeeded in cornering the central government. But the way he blindly attacks Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party, he often tarnishes the good work of the party and the decisions of Congress’ legendary leaders. The kind of protest Rahul Gandhi suddenly started against lateral entry is also something similar. Lateral entry started during the Congress rule and Congress has also used it very well. In view of Rahul Gandhi’s protest, the central government on Tuesday banned the advertisement of lateral entry. Personnel Minister Jitendra Singh wrote a letter to the UPSC chairman and ordered to ban the advertisement. It was informed that the advertisement of direct recruitment has been banned on the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The reason given is that the Prime Minister believes that lateral entry should be similar to the principles of equality and social justice enshrined in our Constitution, especially there should be no tampering with the provisions of reservation.
1- People who came through lateral entry during the Congress regime proved to be a milestone
The Congress-led UPA government was the first to come up with the lateral entry concept. In 2005, the second Administrative Reforms Commission was set up and senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily was its chairman. In the report titled ‘Renovating Personnel Administration – Scaling New Heights’, one of the key recommendations of the commission was to introduce lateral entry to higher government positions that require specialised knowledge and skills. But now Rahul Gandhi is standing up against it. Rahul knows that Manmohan Singh, who was brought in as an economic adviser in the then Ministry of Foreign Trade in 1971 during Indira Gandhi’s rule, was possible only through a lateral entry. Later he also became the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister. Other prominent people include technocrats Sam Pitroda and V. Krishnamurthy, economists Bimal Jalan, Kaushik Basu, Arvind Virmani, Raghuram Rajan and Ahluwalia, RG Patel, RV Shahi. Even Nandan Nilekani, associated with Infosys, was made the chairman of UIDAI, which is related to Aadhaar. And the biggest thing is that all these people have done such work on which it is not possible to point a finger even today. All these people did not come through any reservation or quota. It is possible that if reservation or quota had been made mandatory, then these people would not have been able to enter.
2-The National Advisory Council led by Sonia Gandhi was full of lateral entries
The UPA government has also had its own achievements. These cannot be denied. If Rahul Gandhi considers the UPA government better than the NDA government, then he will also have to understand who were the people working behind it. Senior journalist and thinker Dilip Mandal writes that the National Advisory Council of the UPA government was the biggest lateral entry in the history of India, which actually ruled the country for ten years. Sonia Gandhi was at the top of it. All the decisions were taken here.
This advisory council worked like a super cabinet. It included people like Mihir Shah, Narendra Jadhav, Ashish Mandal, Pramod Tandon, Deep Joshi, Farah Naqvi, Professor MS Swaminathan, Jean Dreze, Harsh Mander, Madhav Gadgil, Aruna Roy. This so-called super cabinet was also criticized. Most of the decisions of the Manmohan government were taken from here. For example, suggestions to bring laws like MNREGA, Food Security Bill, Right to Education, Right to Information came from here. But all these decisions proved to be milestones for the UPA government, on which Congress can be proud even today. No appointment in this advisory council was made on the basis of reservation. Now Rahul Gandhi says that there should be reservation in lateral entry as well. So is he directly rejecting his mother’s decision?
BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi says that the legacy of Rahul Gandhi and his family regarding reservation and SC-ST, OBC is not hidden from anyone and his ignorance is also not hidden from anyone. ‘I want to ask Rahul Gandhi that which batch does our cabinet secretary belong to? If he does not know, we will tell him that he is from the 1987 batch. When his party and his father’s government was in power. Why did they not give reservation to OBC?’
3-What is Rahul saying after the government’s U-turn
After the U-turn on the government’s decision on lateral entry, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s reaction has come to the fore. Rahul Gandhi said, ‘We will protect the Constitution and the reservation system at all costs. We will foil the BJP’s conspiracies like ‘lateral entry’ at all costs. I am saying once again – by breaking the 50 percent reservation limit, we will ensure social justice on the basis of caste count. Jai Hind.’
In fact, the more Rahul Gandhi will corner BJP on issues like reservation for backward classes and caste census, the more the flaws of Congress regime will be exposed. Many people from backward castes may not know that the Mandal Commission report had come during Indira Gandhi’s time but she did not implement it. Rajiv Gandhi also suppressed this report after becoming the Prime Minister. When Vishwanath Pratap Singh’s government was formed in 1989, the Mandal Commission report could be implemented. After that the UPA government remained in power for 10 years but the caste census report could not be released. Even today the caste census report is gathering dust in Karnataka. Congress government was in power in Rajasthan-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh but caste census could not be done. Internal caste census was done in Chhattisgarh but it was also not released by the Congress government. Rahul will definitely be asked why the UPA government implemented OBC quota in NEET All India seat. Obviously, whenever Rahul talks about caste census and reservation for backward classes, these things will be asked from him.
