TN: Civil Service Exam Applicants Against UPSC

The students of Tamil Nadu who have applied for Civil Service Examination are also against the UPSC changes in Regional language used to write their exams.

K.Senthil Kumar, n Engineering Graduate said that the UPSC's notification had come as a rude shock to civil service applicants. Also, that the current system had almost done away regional language in the civil service instead enhanced weightage of English language.

He said "As per the new rule, a candidate can write in a regional language only if he has taken the same language as medium of instruction at the Graduation level which is not possible for engineering and medical candidates. So, we urge the union government to intervene and direct the UPSC to withdraw its notification."

The former UPSC member Professor E.Balaguruswamy also accepted what students and other states opposing this decision had said. He strongly feels that this new rule had no logic and this would create divide between Hindi speaking and non-Hindi speaking people in the country.

He said "UPSC's notification is wrong. I don't know how they arrived at 25 candidates. UPS had taken a unilateral decision. We (former UPSC members) were neither consulted nor were given a copy of the proposed amendment.
The commission should give choice to the candidate to select the language in which he wants to take the exam".

Ganesh IAS Academy's Director S.Ganesa Subramanian, too spoke against UPSC. He questioned UPSC's rationale stating that every year 15000 students write the main exam of whom less than 25 take up in Tamil as UPSC's pattern prevented several students from writing in regional languages.

"As students need to write preliminary exam only in English it already prevents several rural students from entering civil services and this new notification puts off others too", he added.

Moreover, it looks like the whole Tamil Nadu is against this rule of UPSC. After the DMK chief raised against the UPSC regional issue, the students of the state including the Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa is also opposing the UPSC.

Terming the recent exam notification issued by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) as "retrograde" and "highly discriminatory", Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday, said it appeared to be a calculated move to bias the system against civil service aspirants from non-Hindi speaking regions of the country.

"I apprehend that these retrograde changes brought in by the UPSC without adequate consultation with State governments are undemocratic and unilateral and will have the effect of denying the youth of Tamil Nadu their fair chance of representation in the civil services, and ultimately, hamper the governance of the country," the letter to the Prime Minister read.

As per the letter, four major changes in the notification would adversely affect aspirants from Tamil Nadu. First of all, she said, aspirants who completed their schooling in Tamil but shifted to the English medium for their graduation, used to have the option of taking the examination in Tamil.
This option has now been dropped. Only those with a graduation in Tamil medium would be allowed to write the paper in that medium. However, there is no such stipulation for candidates who wish to appear in the Hindi medium.

This discriminated against not just Tamil-speaking candidates but also against all candidates from non-Hindi speaking states and in particular against rural students from marginalized sections who would have had their mother tongue as medium of instruction till school level, she said.

Well, UPSC Civil Service exams are being held since long years, and never the students had faced such issues. Though, in case the UPSC had to bring up changes, Why didn't it notify before the exam applications were issued. Its too late now. Huge number of students have already applied and are busy in preparing for the Civil Service Exams.

What will the students do, if major changes are done at the last moment. Better to start than never do. UPSC can now get into discussions with all states and bring up a good decision which is favorable for its students. What Say?