Bazaar, Sarkar, and Samaj: It's time to rethink the lateral-entry scheme

Solutions by specialists in one domain backfire in others. Designers of governance reforms should go back to the drawing board and rethink the lateral-entry scheme

The government has withdrawn the lateral entry scheme under pressure from political forces complaining it would reduce opportunities for “backward classes” to serve in higher levels of government. In its defence, the government’s supporters point out that lateral entry had been proposed by the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) era. Also, the Congress has been appointing lateral entrants on an ad hoc basis at very high levels whenever it was in power. The aim of the lateral entry scheme of the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission, which the current government has followed, was