Students protesting UPSC exam pattern detained by police near Parliament
The government today assured that there would be "no discrimination based on language" as large crowds of civil service aspirants protested in Delhi against an aptitude test that they believe gives an unfair advantage to English-speaking students.
"We sympathise with the students, we are looking at their problem with all seriousness," Jitender Singh, Minister of State at the Prime Minister's Office, said in Parliament, where opposition parties disrupted both houses with their loud demands for justice.
Shortly before this, over a hundred placard-carrying students were stopped and detained by the police before they could reach Parliament to protest.
Protesters were chased down by policemen, bundled into buses and taken away. The police could be seen physically restraining students even inside the buses.
"Whatever is happening, the government is responsible for it," screamed a young man out of a bus window.
The protests shut down two major Delhi Metro stations, causing inconvenience to commuters.
The protesters want a preliminary aptitude test in the Civil Services examination to be scrapped as they feel it leaves Hindi and regional language aspirants at a disadvantage. The objective type test introduced in 2011 - which, the minister said, needs working knowledge of English - has also been challenged in court.
The protests resumed after the Union Public Service Commission issued admit cards on Thursday for the preliminary entrance exam scheduled on August 24. Students allege that the exam was to be held in September but was advanced to August in an attempt to stymie their protest.
"The immediate provocation of these protests is the admit card," the minister said in the Rajya Sabha. "It was decided by the UPSC, not by the present government. Future action will not be determined by this admit card."
Some 700 protesters clashed with the police last night, set fire to vehicles and damaged a bus. More than a dozen policemen were injured when students allegedly threw stones. 20 students were arrested.