Jairam Ramesh’s remarks came after Union minister Jitendra Singh wrote to the chairperson of UPSC on cancelling the lateral entry advertisement.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at several Union ministers on Tuesday, saying that those who had criticised former prime minister Manmohan Singh over lateral entry recruitment issues were now compelled to praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi following the Centre’s cancellation of the latest recruitment drive.
His remarks came after Union minister Jitendra Singh wrote to the chairperson of Union Public Service Commission on cancelling the lateral entry advertisement as per directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The move came a day after Bharatiya Janata Party ally and Union minister Chirag Paswan on Monday voiced concern over making any appointments in government posts without providing reservation, as the political row over lateral entry escalated, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleging it was an “attack” on the Dalits, OBCs and adivasis.
“Till last evening, Dr Manmohan Singh was being blamed by Union Ministers for the mass lateral entry scheme into the bureaucracy. Some friendly commentators expectedly even extended the line of blame back to (Jawaharlal) Nehru,” Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X (foremerly Twitter).
“Now the very same ministers have suddenly been derailed and are being forced to hail the non-biological PM as a champion of social justice. Hypocrisy ki koi seema nahin hai (There is no limit to hypocrisy)!” he added.
He said that lateral entry was promoted by the NITI Aayog in 2017 and introduced the next year as a major reform intended to revamp the civil service.
“Since 2019, there have been 63 appointments through lateral entry. A further 45 were planned this year but these have just been cancelled,” Ramesh said.
“The non-biological PM is now trying to do much damage control. His drumbeaters are trying to shift responsibility, while the plain and simple truth is that it was hailed as one of Mr Modi’s transformational initiatives when it was launched,” said Jairam Ramesh.