Govt justifies decision on UPSC exam row; Parliament stalled again

Zee Media Bureau/Deepak Nagpal

New Delhi: The NDA government on Tuesday sought to justify its decision on resolving the UPSC exam row, after the same failed to assuage the protesting civil services aspirants. Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu this morning told the BJP parliamentary board meet - which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi - that the best possible decision had been taken in a short span to resolve the row. The decision is correct, Naidu added. Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said that there was no need to say anything more on the matter. Apart from aspirants, the government`s decision to exclude English marks of CSAT-II from gradation or merit failed to satisfy the opposition as well. Chaos prevailed in the Rajya Sabha as well as the Lok Sabha on the issue of CSAT. In Rajya Sabha, Chairman Hamid Ansari was forced to adjourn the House amid uproar and after opposition MPs trooped into the well. Lok Sabha was also adjourned till 12:30 pm. Samajwadi Party`s Naresh Agarwal today said that his party won’t let Parliament function until the CSAT issue is solved. DMK`s Kanimozi said that her party wants other Indian languages also to be included in the UPSC exam. There should be a level playing field for everyone who speak different languages in India, said D Raja of the CPI. JD(U)`s KC Tyagi said his party is not satisfied with the government`s decision on CSAT issue, while Sharad Yadav told the Rajya Sabha that the aspirants want the English paper to be scrapped altogether. Meanwhile, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi refused to comment on the matter. When asked by reporters, Rahul only said, “I met and spoke to students on the matter. I have put forth my views in front of them very clearly. You should ask them.” Civil services aspirants, who have been protesting against the CSAT exam, took their battle to Jantar Mantar today and sat on a dharna there. On Monday, the government had announced changes in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam but the same failed to satisfy the agitating aspirants. Many resolved to continue fighting for "complete scrapping" of the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT). "We are not satisfied with Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh`s speech in Lok Sabha regarding CSAT. We demand complete scrapping of CSAT. We have decided to continue our fight from Jantar Mantar," Pawan, an UPSC aspirant who has been leading the protest, said. The minister had yesterday told Parliament that English marks of CSAT-II will not be included for gradation or merit, and candidates of 2011, when CSAT was first introduced, may get another chance to appear for the test next year. According to Pawan, the government`s announcement failed to fulfil the protesters` demands. "We never asked the BJP-led government to modify CSAT pattern. Instead, our demand is to abolish this test for the welfare of lakhs of students who had studied in Hindi medium," he added. "Before elections, BJP had promised to scrap this test. The BJP-led central government has cheated lakhs of UPSC aspirants who had hoped that the new government would pay heed to their demand," he said.