Opposition parties on Friday protested against a panel report that has reportedly advised the government against making any changes to the test format that has brought hundreds of IAS aspirants to the streets.
A cornered government is battling growing protests over a controversial Civil Services Aptitude Test conducted by the Union Public Service Commission or UPSC.
Opposition parties on Friday protested against a panel report that has reportedly advised the government against making any changes to the test format that has brought hundreds of IAS aspirants to the streets.
In his anger against the alleged bias against Hindi, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Pappu Yadav hit a new low throwing bits of paper at the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan because she refused to entertain his request for raising the issue.
Samajwadi Party's Naresh Agarwal said his party would protest in multiple cities, while Congress' Ashwani Kumar accused the government of not being able to understand the situation. "The government isn't even ready to tell us what next," he alleged.
Sources say the government is considering the report of the three-member Arvind Verma committee on the preliminary test format introduced in 2011. The panel was set up in 2012 after the Civil Services Aptitude Test was challenged in court.
A petition said the test should be scrapped as it leaves Hindi and regional language aspirants at a disadvantage.
Dr Jitendra Singh, MoS, Department of Personnel and Training sought to reassure students and the political class seeking more time to come to a decision. "Everyone's opinion is being taken seriously and the government will convey its decision to the House," he said.
But the agitations are set to intensify. Pawan Kumar Pandey, a UPSC aspirant protesting at Jantar Mantar along with close to fifty others said, "Why is the government dangling the carrot of this committee and its report. It's been 15 days since we were given an assurance from the minister and don't they understand students careers are at stake?"
In addition, the government is now under pressure from its own party, after Dr Singh was called to the BJP office on Friday evening. Facing a united opposition, time seems to be running out for a cornered government.