A debate has erupted regarding lateral entry in UPSC. Meanwhile, the statement of Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has come. He said, Congress is misleading the country on lateral entry. Vaishnav cited the lateral entry of Dr. Manmohan Singh and Montek Singh Ahluwalia in the Congress rule. Vaishnav said that Congress is making misleading claims. This will not affect the recruitment of SC/ST category in All India Services.
Actually, UPSC issued an advertisement on August 17, in which 45 Joint Secretary, Deputy Secretary and Director level recruitments were done through lateral entry. This is the biggest lateral recruitment till date. In lateral recruitment, candidates are recruited without appearing for UPSC exam. There is no benefit of reservation rules in this. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opposed this and said, reservation of SC, ST and OBC classes is being openly snatched away by recruitment on important posts through lateral entry.
When the controversy escalated, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav took charge. He clarified that lateral entry in bureaucracy is not a new thing. Lateral entry has been taking place during Congress-led governments since the 1970s, and former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and Montek Singh Ahluwalia are prime examples of such initiatives. The minister argued that 45 posts are proposed for lateral entry in the bureaucracy. This number is 0.5 per cent of the cadre strength of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) of over 4,500 officers and will not cut into the roster of any service.
Also read: The idea of Lateral Entry came during the Congress rule, know what arguments were given in its favor then?
Ashwini Vaishnav listed the names of celebrities
The tenure of lateral entry bureaucrats is three years and extension of two years is possible. Vaishnav said Manmohan Singh came into the government as a lateral entry in 1971 as an economic advisor in the then Foreign Trade Ministry and became the Finance Minister and later the Prime Minister. He said that other prominent people include the names of technocrats Sam Pitroda and V. Krishnamurthy, economists Bimal Jalan, Kaushik Basu, Arvind Virmani, Raghuram Rajan and Ahluwalia.
Rajan served as chief economic advisor
Bimal Jalan served as Chief Economic Advisor to the government and later as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Virmani and Basu were also appointed as Chief Economic Advisors in 2007 and 2009 respectively. Raghuram Rajan also served as the Chief Economic Advisor and later as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from 2013 to 2016.
Also read: Again the system of making ‘IAS without examination’ in discussion, in which countries lateral entry already exists?
Ahluwalia was brought into government roles from academia and international organizations. He served as the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission from 2004 to 2014.
Vaishnav said, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani was appointed as the head of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in 2009.
Congress brought the concept of lateral entry
Vaishnav said in a post written on This commission was headed by Veerappa Moily. The ARC during the tenure of the UPA government had suggested that experts should be appointed to the posts where special knowledge is required. The NDA government has adopted a transparent method to implement this recommendation of ARC and recruitments will be done in a fair manner.
Also read: ‘Privatization of IAS is a guarantee of ending reservation…’, Rahul Gandhi angry at Center over lateral entry in UPSC.
At the same time, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal has attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Meghwal said, Rahul Gandhi is the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha. He holds a constitutional post. They are not paying attention to these things. He says that RSS people are being recruited through lateral entry. Dr. Manmohan Singh is also a part of lateral entry. We want to ask how did you directly appoint him as Financial Secretary in 1976? The then Deputy Chairman of your Planning Commission (Montek Singh Ahluwalia) also came through lateral entry. You will find hundreds of such examples. You started lateral entry. Administration Reform Commission was formed in 2005. Its report has come out. You are saying that we are ending reservation. What were you doing when you were recruiting? Now suddenly his love for OBCs surged. Rajiv Gandhi had said in the Lok Sabha that he was against reservation for OBCs. Now suddenly their (Congress) love for OBCs has awakened and they are misleading SC/ST OBC students.