The Narendra Modi government on Tuesday backtracked from its policy of general lateral recruitment to the bureaucracy, driven by the fear of being seen as anti-reservation and blinking after BJP allies joined the Opposition in protesting the decision.

The Centre has asked the Union Public Service Commission to “cancel” its advertisement for lateral hiring, issued just three days ago. Lohiaite NDA allies like the JDU and the LJP had made common cause with the Opposition to slam the government for the “anti-reservation” lateral-entry policy.

“The Prime Minister is of the firm belief that the process of lateral entry must be aligned with the principles of equity and social justice enshrined in our Constitution, particularly concerning the provisions of reservation,” the junior minister in the Prime Minister’s office, Jitendra Singh, said in his letter to the UPSC chairman.

“Hence, I urge the UPSC to cancel the advertisement for lateral entry recruitment issued on 17.8.2024,” the letter added.

With this, the Modi government appears to have given ground for the first time in the aftermath of its reduced mandate in the Lok Sabha polls.

The letter underlined that the “no reservation” aspect of the lateral recruitment policy would be “reviewed and reformed” to include the provision of quotas.

“Since these positions have been treated as specialised and designated as single-cadre posts, there has been no provision for reservation in these appointments. This aspect needs to be reviewed and reformed…,” Singh wrote.

Last Saturday, the UPSC had issued an ad seeking “talented and motivated Indian nationals” for lateral recruitment to 45 senior-level positions in the central government, including those of joint secretary, director and deputy secretary.

The lateral entry policy was formally introduced by the Modi government in 2018 and involved recruitments from outside traditional government service cadres. The reservation policy, therefore, doesn’t apply to it.

The UPSC advertisement sparked an outcry with leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi leading the charge against the government, terming the process an “attack on Dalits, OBCs and tribals”. Rahul doubled down, accusing the Modi government of using the policy to sneak RSS functionaries into the bureaucracy.

The two NDA allies from Bihar — the JDU and the LJP — came out on Monday to criticise the lateral entry policy, as the Opposition built the anti-reservation narrative against the government.

The JDU said the move amounted to giving a big issue on the platter to the Opposition. “Those opposed to the NDA will use this advertisement. Rahul Gandhi will become a champion of the socially deprived sections…,” JDU spokesperson K.C. Tyagi said.

LJP chief Chirag Paswan, the food processing minister in the Union government, joined in, saying that the shunning of quotas in government recruitments was unacceptable.

The BJP-RSS combine has been vulnerable to charges of being anti-reservation and has occasionally suffered political damage because of the perception.

With both the Opposition and the allies claiming vindication after the ad was cancelled, government managers were deployed to hail Modi as a champion of socially deprived sections.

“Today, PM Modi has iterated commitment to Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution with the big decision to implement the reservation policy in the lateral recruitment policy,” railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a video statement.

He slammed the Opposition, claiming that the lateral entry policy without a provision for reservation had been implemented by the previous UPA government.

Singh wrote that major lateral entries before 2014 were “made in an ad-hoc manner” and exhibited “favouritism” while the Modi government had striven to “make the process institutionally driven, transparent and open”.

Vindicated: Opposition

The Opposition celebrated the government’s retreat as a victory. “Long live the Constitution! The Congress party’s fight for social justice for our Dalits, tribals, backward and weaker sections has foiled the BJP’s plans to snatch away reservation,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge posted on X.

“The campaign by Rahul Gandhi, Congress and the INDIA parties has compelled the government to step back, but as long as the BJP-RSS is in power, it will keep adopting new tactics to snatch away reservation. We all have to be careful.”

Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said: “Let the lateral entry incident serve as a harsh lesson for PM Modi and the BJP-RSS regime to never tamper with the Constitution.”

“Now as the post-June 4 (the Lok Sabha results day) reality is seeping in, this anti-reservation regime is being forced to step away from its true casteist agenda,” he said.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav celebrated the cancellation with a post on X: “The conspiracy of making appointments through the back door… has finally succumbed…. BJP’s conspiracies are not succeeding now; this is a big victory of the awakening and awareness that has come in the deprived sections.”

RJD chief Tejashwi Yadav castigated Modi as a “fake OBC PM”, asserting that people would “teach him a lesson”.