Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar said on Saturday that extensions in service, in any form for a particular post is a setback to those who are in line. Dhankhar was delivering the inaugural address at the 25th National Conference of Chairpersons of State Public Service Commission being held in Bengaluru. Vice President also said that extension of service indicates that some individuals are indispensable.
“Indispensability is a myth. Talent abounds in this country. No one is indispensable. And therefore, it lies in the domain of Public Service Commissions (PSC) at the state and the central level that when they have a role in such kinds of situations, they must be firm,” added the VP. He also said PSC’s appointments cannot be driven by patronage, or by favouritism.
“We cannot have a public service commission Chairman or a member, wedded to a particular ideology or an individual. That will be undoing the essence and spirit of the framework of the constitution,” said Dhankhar.
The Vice-President also frowned upon post-retirement recruitment and said it is antithetical to what was visualised by framers of the Constitution.
“In some states, it has been structured. Employees never retire, particularly those in the premium services.
They get a number of ad-hoc nomenclatures. This is not good. Everyone in the country must have due and that due is defined by law,” said the VP.
The VP also said fairness of selection has no meaning if paper leakages occur. “Paper leakage has become an industry, a form of commerce.
This is a menace that must be curbed,” he added. He commended the initiative the Government has taken in this regard, with the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024.
The Vice President is also of the view that although it is “India’s century”, without a “calm political atmosphere” India will not really gain.
A vitiated political climate is far more dangerous than the climate change we are facing, he pointed out.
“Our polity at the moment is too divisive, too polarised. Interaction is not taking place at the premium level in political organisations.”
The solution, according to him, is harmony in polity. “Harmony is imperative.
If there is no harmony in polity, if the polity is polarized, deeply divisive, with no communication channels functioning, imagine you are in an earthquake, you are lost and you have no connection with the outside world, things will be terrible for you,” he added.
He also said for India to stand strong, we need strong institutions.