Students protesting UPSC exam pattern were 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 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.
Over a hundred placard-carrying students were stopped earlier 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.
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. It resulted in a panel, which has now been asked to submit its report within a week.
Protests resumed yesterday after the Union Public Service Commission issued admit cards for the preliminary entrance exam scheduled on August 24. Students allege that the exam was to be held in September but was advanced to stymie their protest.
"Future action will not be determined by this admit card," the minister said in the Rajya Sabha.
Opposition parties including the Congress labored the point that since the new pattern was introduced, the number of non-English speaking candidates to make it to the civil services has dropped sharply.
"Everywhere in the world all official work is done in their national language. Those countries only excel," said Mulayam Singh Yadav, chief of Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party, who has often spoken against English learning in schools.
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.