The controversy over the pattern of the civil service preliminary examination, conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), seems to be turning into a row between Hindi-speaking and non-Hindi speaking candidates.
Students from Tamil Nadu, who have formed a collective, feel the Centre is going out of its way to protect the interests of those with a Hindi-speaking background. On the other hand, the demands of candidates from other regions over the medium of the examination are not given enough attention, they say.
The Civil Service Exam Aspirants’ Forum has sent a plea to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with a copy to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, seeking question papers in all languages, including Tamil, listed in Schedule 8 of the Constitution.
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According to the forum members, the question papers are set in English and Hindi. Yet, there is a furore over the Civil Service Aptitude Test (CSAT) of the preliminary examination, which Hindi-speaking candidates say is giving those with the English-medium background an undue advantage. Protests also erupted in New Delhi over the last week with the Hindi-background students demanding the scrapping of the CSAT itself.
“In reality, only eight questions of the test are exclusively in English. Translation in Hindi is provided for all other questions. But for the people of the Tamil-medium background, knowing high-standard English becomes compulsory for attempting even a single question,” claims Sri Anbalagan, member of the forum. This skewed the test against regional aspirants.
The forum members point out in the plea that they are not seeking special status for Tamil. “We seek equal status for all regional languages,” the letter adds.
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The aspirants also want political parties in Tamil Nadu to back their demand, pointing out that the three-member committee formed to go into the exam pattern issue is gearing up to submit its recommendations soon. “Time has come for Tamil Nadu to speak out on the issue,” the letter says.