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| UPSC Headquarters in Delhi |
they have argued the move would be detrimental to the interests of candidates hailing from rural backgrounds and those who wish to write the examinations in regional languages. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, DMK’s Karunanidhi even accused the Central government of using it as a ploy to impose Hindi. “This is a serious violation of the assurance given by Pandit (Jawaharlal) Nehru to our nation,” his letter to PM said.
First, let’s have a look at the contentious provisions of the changed UPSC Mains pattern, which is the step-II to qualify for senior bureaucracy like IAS, IFS, IPS, IRS etc. Those who qualify the preliminary exams can appear for the Mains. The interview is the final stage.
The changed version of UPSC Mains examination which has PM’s nod, has imposed a restriction on choosing a regional language to write the exams. A candidate can now write in regional language only when there are minimum of 25 candidates appearing from the same language. It's argued that the move would give a big blow to those candidates who are knowledgeable, yet don't have a good command over Hindi or English. Secondly, the candidates will now have to write a compulsory English paper of 100 marks. It’s not just for qualification, as the marks obtained in that mini-paper will be counted. The government officials framing the new provisions argue that in a total of 2075 marks, the weightage of English will be insignificant at less than 5%, but as MP chief minister Chouhan argued, it would have a fallout on prospects of rural and tribal aspirants, giving a political twist to the entire debate.
Raj Thackeray too has joined the debate asking Maharashtra MPs to oppose the move. He said “monopoly” of English was not desirable. Raj argued that applicants from Maharashtra must have the opportunity to answer the exams in Marathi.
On Tuesday, a small group of protesters landed up at Dholpur House, the headquarters of the UPSC located in Delhi’s Shahjahan Road, shouting slogans against what they say is rural-urban divide. BoI welcomes an informed and objective debate on the subject.
This whole debate is futile and point less. The nation can't move forward with such regional aspirations.But in India its true we don't require english command. Other than IFS no service demands a high degree of command over english. UPSC could have made english as compulsory for aspirants who have put IFS as 1st choice and a separate interview,rest all services can be exempted from it.
ReplyDeleteEnglish and regional languages should get equal importance. One can't be over the other. Even the convent educated English-speaking babus need to work in the villages, and have to deal with the problems of common men.
ReplyDeleteIT IS INDEED VERY IDEAL CHANGE THAT GOVERNMENT REPLACING REGIONAL LANGUAGES WITH ENGLISH, AS UPSC BEING AN ALL INDIA SERVICES AND MAJORITY OF STATE GOVERNMENTS AND ALL CENTRAL GOVERNMENT CORRESPONDING DONE OFFICIALLY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE, GOOD COMMAND OVER ENGLISH IS VERY ESSENTIAL,THE CANDIDATES FROM RURAL OR ANY CASTE/RELIGION SHOULD BE WELL VERSED WITH ENGLISH / SHOULD GET TRAINED IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE SPEAKING/WRITING IF THEY WISH TO APPEAR FOR ALL INDIA SERVICES, OTHER WISE THEY SHOULD APPEAR FOR STATE CIVIL SERVICES EXAMS; AS FAR AS THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF 25 CANDIDATES REQUIREMENT FOR APPEARING IN REGIONAL LANGUAGE SHOULD BE WITHDRAWN AS IT WILL CERTAINLY CUTTING THE OPPORTUNITY OF TALENTED YOUTH WHO HAS COMMAND OVER SUBJECTS IN REGIONAL LANGUAGES.
ReplyDeleteA few things need some clarification here.
ReplyDelete1. Regional language used to appear at three distinct levels in the previous pattern - as a qualifying paper, as a medium to write a whole main exam and as an optional. UPSC has completely replaced the first part with 100 marks compulsory English paper (not qualifying anymore). For the second - minimum 25 aspirants are required to avail that option. And for the third - a degree with that medium is required to become eligible to take that optional.
There are doubts about all these issues but we should be careful enough to analyse them separately.
2. I think we are mixing another two different issues here. First is Hindi vs non-Hindi languages and second is English vs Indian languages.
3. First of all, it should be clear in our mind that all the 22 languages mentioned in the eighth schedule of the Constitution are the National languages. In that sense, there is nothing special about Hindi. If English is so important and there is not a shred of pro-Hindi bias, then Hindi should be treated at par with rest of the Indian languages. It means - mains exam not allowed in Hindi language if less than 25 people choose to appear and secondly, an aspirant should not be allowed to choose Hindi optional paper if her degree is not with Hindi medium. It would not give Hindi-speaker an extra advantage over non-Hindi speakers.
4. So far as English vs non-English is concerned – unfortunately, it does really give an added advantage to an urban candidate. But in the government, that skill is extremely necessary. We see many babus with poor English communication skill which makes them relatively inefficient at the higher levels. And as has been seen in the past, this skill is not easily acquired at later stages. Today, when India is going more global, this problem needs to be adjusted. We can’t have LBSNAA start English skill development sessions for our secretaries.
Karunanidhi has no right to speak for Tamils in general as he has taken back tamilnadu behind by several decades during his party's rule in TN. As for Tamil, it is not a seperately indispensable language in India and doesn;t deserve any such special importance one bit. Rest of what UPSC have brought about changes in their current pattern are really commendable and English should be the mainstay for the Babus of India and not Tamil or any other regional language.
ReplyDeleteIndian languages should be there its totally a wrong decision taken by government . I am not against English but there should be 2nd compulsory language. Plus medium of education should be also optional .English is overrated In India may be its link language on paper but original link language of India is Hindi .I am from Assam and visited many states of country except with few official the language which help me most is Hindi. Only 5 percent peoples in India can speak good English .Can some one tell me how you gone make fluent 95% peoples fluent in a foreign language? I have learned Hindi from just watching Bollywood movies.But struggle in English even after completing graduation in it .
ReplyDeleteThe importance of language skill can be realised if the number of clarification that are being sought for every order of the Government.Hence, whatever may be the language there should be minimum standards and the means of ensuring that the aspirants possess a minimum language skill is essential
ReplyDeleteViews should be above parochialism and non discriminatory
All the government dealing are done in english...this is the era of globalization and one should admit english as a means of communication which is globally used..and the exam for english is not going to be of expertise level..so there should not be any problem..some people may face problems initially but they should understand that this is important
ReplyDeleteThis can be a move to keep away those aspirants who belong to dalits, backward and weaker section of society. This is very unfortunate that even after more than 60 years of indepence we are unable to shed the tag of macauley regime. It can be seen as a brahmanical steps to cover their predominance what they have really been enjoying from the period of colonial era. This is a classs who does not want to widespread the power to downtroden chunk of society. This is the one of the region that after six decades, we have failed to deliver the services to the people of this country. The administrative mechanism is based on expoliting the poor and weaker section of people. The police is still behaving in a manner that they are protecting the interest of a class who only expolites. We must accept it. The participation of socially backward class , which is in majority in this country, in bureaucracy is less than one percent. And very few who entered to serve has been delibrately stopped to become secretary or hold higher post in this country. Discrimination is part of system and applied by the mentality of colonial ruling brahminical class. That is the region, thanks to the political masters who emerged as leader of majority due to democratic structure, have rightly oppose the move to give weightage to English. I am waiting for the day when we can able to evolve the system which is not based on imitating english culture.
ReplyDelete