Why Modi govt's lateral entry proposal is a big gamble in an election year

With Lok Sabha polls barely a year away, the Modi govt has taken a huge risk by opening itself to accusations of caste bias in recruitment

In its four years, the Narendra Modi government has shown a penchant for opening too many battlefronts at the same time. To its long list of detractors, the government has now added India’s bureaucracy, that too in an election year, with its move to open doors for lateral entry of private sector professionals to 10 joint secretary-level bureaucratic posts.

In the 14 months since it posted a famous win in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls in March 2017, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made all opposition parties unite by consistently talking of a ‘vipaksh mukt Bharat’, or how