Protest against UPSC’s discriminatory Policy Changes

JNUSU holds Protest Dharna at Jantar Mantar on 7th November against UPSC’s Discriminatory Policy Moves of Deletion of Several Languages and Elitist CSAT based Examination Pattern.

They also submitted a memorandum to the Department of Personal and Training.

Students from Jamia, DU, Patna and Hundreds of UPSC aspirants joins the Protest
Raising the slogans “UPA ka naya ghotala, UPSC se aam chhatron ko bahar nikala”, hundreds of students from JNU, DU, Jamia and large number of UPSc aspirants held a Protest Dharna at Jantar Mantar.

They also sent a deputation to DoPT against the serious recent changes in the UPSC syllabus and exam pattern – such as the exclusion of ‘foreign languages’ as optional subjects in UPSC and the newly introduced highly discriminatory CSAT based Prelims pattern of UPSC.

This is the second protest by JNUSU on the issue. On last 10 Oct JNUSU held a massive demonstration at UPSC Bhawan, where UPSC Jt. Secy. in the negotiations passed the buck calling these changes as policy of the government.

So demonstration was held against the UPA govt. A massive online campaign had been undertaken on a petition on the issues.

The protest and the petition raised pointed questions:

Why Exclude ‘Foreign’ Languages (such as Arabic, Persian, Russian, German, Spanish, Chinese etc) which are taught in as many as twenty Indian Universities from UPSC Subjects?

How Do Arabic-Persian taught for centuries become ‘Foreign’, When English is Not?

Whom Does UPA Want to Exclude by Scrapping Arabic-Persian from UPSC Subjects?

Why the biased format for CSAT, which discriminate against students from Rural, Non-English and Humanities Background?

Why no Additional Attempts and Age Relaxation is being given to the candidates caught in transition period of syllabus change?

“At a time when the Government is singing the praises for ‘globalisation’, why is it scrapping foreign languages (taught in our universities) in job avenues related to governing the country? Doesn’t it make more sense that in the present context, graduates and post-graduates with full training in foreign languages from our universities be encouraged more to take up jobs in UPSC?” asked JNUSU President Akbar Chawdhary.

“Why is the govt curtailing the opportunities of Madarsa-trained students in premier job avenues, when Arabic and Persian have centuries- long history of teaching-learning in India?,” said Sandeep Saurav, General Secretary, JNUSU.

Massive fall in the number of non-English background candidates writing Mains of UPSC post-CSAT:

“The new CSAT based UPSC exam pattern is a definite disadvantage for non-English speaking, rural and Humanities candidates. The new pattern tampers the level playing field and privileges students from Engineering/medical/Management backgrounds. The facts itself speak for themselves – candidates appearing in the Mains exam in Hindi medium has gone down from 5082 in 2008 to 1682 in 2011, in Kannada has fallen from 14 in 2008 to 5 in 2011, in Tamil from 98 in 2008 to 14 in 2011, in Telugu from 117 in 2008 to 29 in 2011”, added Sandeep Saurav.

Memorandum to DoPT Minister Narayanswamy demanded:

Restoration of ‘Foreign’ Languages, taught in our Universities across the country in the List of Subjects of UPSC Civil Services Exam,

Review of the CSAT and UPSC prelim Exam Pattern that tampers the level playing field for arts, humanities and different indian language candidates, particularly from non-English trained and rural backgrounds, vis-a-vis the candidates with Science / Medical/Engineering / Management Training;

Granting of 3 Additional Attempts and Age Relaxation to the candidates who are caught in the transition of syllabus change of 2011 and 2013.

“The issues we are raising are important for students all over the country. Given the national importance of UPSC’s policy decisions, JNUSU has contacted and also received support from students and teachers from various universities,” said Akbar Chawdhary, President, JNUSU.

DoPT joint secretary, who met the delegation, gave a patient hearing but no concrete response.

JNUSU announced to hold a Parliament March soon in the coming winter session by mobilizing students from different universities across the country against these highly biased and elitist policy changes of the UPA and UPSC.