New Delhi: Hitting out at the Centre’s latest push to bring in specialists through lateral entry into top government positions, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of undermining the Constitution by bypassing the traditional recruitment process through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha, also alleged that the Modi government was favouring recruits with affiliations to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
“Reservation for SC, ST, and OBC categories is being openly snatched away by recruiting through lateral entry on important posts in various ministries of the central government,” Gandhi wrote in Hindi on X.
He expressed concern that the underprivileged are already underrepresented in top bureaucratic positions, and this new policy would further exclude them, depriving talented youth preparing for civil services exams of their rightful opportunities.
Gandhi’s statement comes in response to the Modi government’s fresh push for lateral entry, where 45 specialists will join key positions such as joint secretaries, directors, and deputy secretaries across various central ministries. Traditionally, these posts are filled by officers from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Forest Service (IFoS), and other Group A services.
However, the government, through the UPSC, has advertised these posts to be filled on a contractual basis, a move it argues is intended to bring in fresh talent and specialised knowledge into governance.
Rahul Gandhi warned that the lateral entry system represents a “robbery of the rights of talented youth” and an attack on the very concept of social justice.
“A prime example of what representatives of a few corporates will do by occupying key government positions is SEBI, where for the first time a person from the private sector has been made the chairperson,” the Congress leader noted, referring to the appointment of Madhabi Puri Buch, who is facing allegations of conflicts of interest following a report from US short-seller Hindenburg Research.
