The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has once again attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the UPSC lateral entry appointments. AAP leader Pawan Kumar Tinu accused the BJP of being anti-Dalit and plotting to eliminate SC-ST reservations. Addressing the media at the party headquarters in Chandigarh on Thursday, Pawan Kumar Tinu stated that during the 2018 lateral entry appointments, the UPSC was directed by the Prime Minister's Office.
He also presented a report from an English newspaper indicating that at least 50 posts should be reserved for lateral entry. Tinu said that the purpose of lateral entry was to end reservations in higher posts, so the BJP government made appointments one by one to avoid following the constitutional rules of reservation, which would have been required if 50-60 appointments had been made together.
He claimed that UPSC was given only two to three days for these appointments to avoid public scrutiny and controversy. This time, their plan was exposed because they advertised for 45 appointments at once. This decision was withdrawn only due to the upcoming assembly elections in four states.
If there were no elections, the decision likely would not have been reversed. Tinu added that when the BJP faced backlash, it shifted the responsibility to UPSC, while the entire decision was actually that of the Central Government. He alleged that the BJP aims to eliminate the constitutional reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Pawan Kumar Tinu said it is very unfortunate that the Central Government is working against Dalit reservations. The reservation provision was established for Dalits because they lacked sufficient land for survival, let alone farming, and their social status was dire, with them being considered untouchable.
Hence, reservations were provided in government jobs and elections. He added that the BJP government is not only working against Dalits but also against the youth of the general category. About 980,000 posts are vacant in various Central Government departments and are not being filled, while millions of youth remain unemployed in the country.
Additionally, the number of government jobs has significantly decreased under the Modi government. Since 2014, over 50,000 jobs have been cut in public sector banks alone, thousands of jobs have been lost in government telecom companies, and many more were lost due to the privatization of numerous government companies.