BJP government's lateral hiring move aimed is at saffronising bureaucracy, says Veerappa Moily

Hyderabad: The BJP-led NDA government’s move on lateral recruitment is part of its roadmap to saffronise the civil service, alleged M Veerappa Moily, who had served as Chairman of the second Administrative Reforms Commission. The former Union law minister also faulted the timing of the recruitment announcement, questioning how such a “major decision” can be taken when Lok Sabha elections are less than a year away. [caption id=“attachment_1101227” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Veerappa Moily. PTI[/caption] Moily on Wednesday also alleged that 25 percent of the bureaucracy is already “saffronised”, claiming that the BJP is running institutes to train IAS aspirants. The NDA government is “preferring” civil servants “purely on their ideology-orientation,” he further alleged. “With this (lateral recruitment) another 25 percent (of bureaucracy) will be saffronised”, the former Karnataka chief minister told PTI on Wednesday. “This is a part a roadmap to saffronise the civil service,” he alleged. The government has opened up senior level bureaucratic posts in several departments to people, even from the private sector, who are “talented and motivated”, and willing to contribute towards nation building. According to an advertisement published in leading newspapers earlier this week, the government is looking for 10 “outstanding individuals”, even from the private sector, with expertise in the areas of revenue, financial services, economic affairs, agriculture, cooperation and farmers’ welfare, road transport and highway, shipping, environment, forests and climate change, new and renewable energy, civil aviation and commerce. Moily said the commission that he chaired had laid down policies on lateral entry and recommended a “cautious approach” but the NDA government has gone ahead with the advertisement without framing any rules and policy document. “It should not demoralise the present civil service system which is well nurtured and time-tested; it should not disrupt that. The civil service system should not be ideology-oriented, and it should not be politicised,” he said. The government, Moily alleged, had attempted to saffronise the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariats. “Same thing will happen here (lateral recruitment)”. He denied suggestions in some quarters that the current bureaucratic set-up is antiquated and inefficient, saying recruitment and training procedure, as well as syllabus, had been changed in tune with the times and in accordance with the recommendations of the commission. “There should be a process of de-politicisation of the civil services system,” Moily, however, added.