A large group of civil services aspirants on Friday staged a protest near the Prime Minister’s official residence on Race Course Road alleging that there was “discrimination against UPSC aspirants from Hindi medium”.
The protesters had camped outside the Tughlaq Road police station till late evening, while smaller groups held similar demonstrations in other parts of the city earlier in the day. Their key demands included meeting the Prime Minister. Several metro stations were also closed down as a safety measure.
This latest round of protests comes a week after a similar protest was held outside Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence demanding a four year age relaxation for the UPSC entrance examination, removal of Civil Service Aptitude Tests (CSATs), simplification of the qualifying paper for English, and non-compulsion to speak in English during interview.
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“The UPSC introduced CSAT in 2011. The final results of UPSC examination have demonstrated a trend of negative discrimination against UPSC aspirants from Hindi medium,” said Pawan, one of the protesters at Race Course Road.
“Between 2005 and 2010, the final results had a representation of 10 per cent-15 per cent students from non-English medium. In 2013, this percentage dwindled to almost 2.3 per cent. This year, amidst the successful number of 1,122 candidates, only 26 are from Hindi medium,” he added.
The students gathered themselves at Race Course Road after peacefully marching from Mukherjee Nagar and adjoining areas, famous for preparation of Civil Services Examinations, arguably the most gruelling examination in the country.
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“The trend set by this government in actualising the usage of Hindi for official purposes has been a huge boost for us. Therefore, we hope that the PMO will listen to us,” said Sachin, another protester.