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Journalism of Courage
The social justice red flag raised by the Opposition and its own allies on lateral appointments in the bureaucracy hit a vulnerable spot for the Narendra Modi government, explaining the quick climbdown by it, a day after it had fielded Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, a Dalit leader from Rajasthan, to defend the move.
The letter written by Union Minister for Department of Personnel and Training Jitendra Singh to the UPSC directing that the advertisement inviting applications for 45 posts be cancelled, as well as a social media post by Union Railway and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw calling it a reflection of “the Modi government’s commitment towards social justice and the Constitution”, showed a clear attempt to fend off any charge against it of “ending reservations”.
The Opposition built a successful campaign in the Lok Sabha elections around this theme, a fact that has been acknowledged by the BJP. Since the polls, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi has not let up on his attacks on the issue, whether demanding that the Modi government conduct a caste census, talking about the recent Supreme Court order on sub-categorisation of SC/STs, or the UPSC lateral appointment ad.
BJP leaders have openly admitted that they were late in realising and checking the Opposition campaign in the Lok Sabha polls. Its ally and Union minister Anupriya Patel said at The Indian Express Idea Exchange session that the campaign was to a large extent responsible for why the BJP dropped to 33 seats in UP, nearly half its 2019 tally.
The BJP fears any further dent in its SC/ST and OBC vote bank, having nurtured it assiduously to shed the image of being a North Indian party of primarily “upper castes”. The coming Assembly elections offer the first risk of that happening.
The BJP had reacted with similar caution after the Supreme Court ruling saying that state governments were within their powers to sub-categorise SC/STs for the purpose of reservations. Though the Centre had backed this in its affidavit to the Court, the party has not clarified its stand on this since the ruling, with its own SC/ST leaders apprehensive that such sub-quotas would dilute their unity and eventually reservations.
There is also uncertainty over the Supreme Court’s observation suggesting creamy layer exclusion. Modi had met SC/ST MPs of the BJP to settle these doubts, saying the government would not be going in for such a measure.
Attacking the lateral appointments Monday, Gandhi said: “Reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs is being openly snatched… I have always said that the underprivileged are not represented in all the country’s top posts… Instead of improving it, they are being pushed further away from the top posts… Privatisation of the IAS is Modi’s guarantee for ending reservation.”
Initially, the BJP responded to Gandhi’s statement with a sharp attack. Meghwal said that these were contract posts and the people to be appointed would be domain experts. “What is the problem if, say, an expert on the environment becomes deputy secretary? These posts are open to all. Even a person from the SC, ST and OBC categories can apply. The vacancies for the IAS in the UPSC are different,” the Union minister said.
