The
recruiter’s dilemma
(Published in mylaw.net)
(Published in mylaw.net)
There was opposition
from various quarters to some of the major changes to the Civil Services
Examination announced in a recent Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) notification. Protests in
Parliament were vocal and the Centre acted quickly to place the
notification in abeyance. The Civil
Services Examination (CSE) comprises of the below mentioned two successive
stages:
(i) Civil Services (Preliminary) Examinations (Objective
Type) for the selection of candidates for Main Examination; and
(ii) Civil Services (Main) Examination (Written and Interview) for the selection of candidates for the various services and posts.
(ii) Civil Services (Main) Examination (Written and Interview) for the selection of candidates for the various services and posts.
The Civil Services (Preliminary)
Examinations also known as Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT)
consists of two papers of Objective type (multiple choice questions) and carry
a maximum of 400 marks. This examination is meant to serve as a screening test
since the marks obtained in the Preliminary Examination by the candidates, who
are declared qualified for admission to the Main Examination, are not counted
for determining their final order of merit.
The Civil Services (Main) Examination consists
of a written examination and an interview test. The written examination, till
now before the above said notification, will consist of 9 papers of
conventional essay type which can be written in any language listed in the 8th
Schedule of the Constitution. The 9 papers included 2 papers of General Studies
worth 300 marks each and common to everyone, 2 papers each of 2 optional
subjects(again worth 300 marks each) which have to be picked from the list of
subjects given by UPSC, a general essay paper worth 300 marks and 2 qualifying
papers of English and a regional language to be chosen from the list that
consists of Arabic, Assamese, Bodo, Bengali, Dogri, Chinese, English, French,
German, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam,
Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Pali, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Sanskrit,
Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu. The compulsory English and Regional
language papers were merely qualifying in nature and its marks were not added
up to decide the final rank of the candididates.
Candidates, who obtain such certain minimum mark in the
written part of the Main Examination as may be fixed by the Commission at their
discretion, are summoned by them for an interview for a Personality Test. The
interview will carry 300 marks. Marks thus obtained by the candidates in the
Main Examination (written part as well as interview) would determine their
final ranking. Candidates will be allotted to the various Services keeping in
view their ranks in the examination and the preferences expressed by them for
the various Services and posts.
One of the most
significant changes in the recent notification was the introduction of English as
a compulsory paper worth 100 marks. Previously, English had merely been a qualifying paper without any
weightage in terms of marks. The move has been seen as acceptance of the
fact that basic minimum English proficiency is an essential skill to govern in
a modern day bureaucracy. In Parliament however, emotionally charged slogans
such as “Angrezi me kaam na hoga, Phir se desh ghulaam na hoga” (“There
will be no work in English; the country will not be a slave again”) were
raised.
Secondly, the
notification introduced a new condition for candidates who want to choose their
medium of examination in a regional language other than Hindi and for candidates opting for a regional
literature subject as an optional paper. The condition was that the candidate must have opted for that medium in his/her graduation to
choose the medium in that regional language and to choose a regional literature subject as an
optional paper, he or she has to be a graduate from a recognized
university/college with specialization, meaning honors, in that subject. This reform
was in response to general
tendency of candidates to flock together on regional literature papers since
there is a perceived belief that since the evaluator would be a person
representing the same state, the evaluation would be liberal and more to
favorable to such candidates. Statistics seem to bolster this argument since an
overwhelmingly large percentage of students choosing regional literature as
their optional paper comes out successful every year in this competitive
examination. Further, if the candidates choose their medium as a regional
language for all papers, the concerned subject experts like a psychology
professor, may not be comfortable in that regional language and this would set
different standards for even candidates who are choosing the same optional
subjects. Furthermore, there was
an ever increasing proliferation of coaching institutes which used to
manufacture successful candidates after their month long courses in certain
optional subjects such as Pali literature. This forced UPSC to take away Pali
from the list of optional subjects in the above said notification. The number
of optional papers which had to be chosen, which was two earlier, was also
reduced to one. Thus here, the main objective for UPSC was to bring in a level
playing field as far as possible for all candidates.
However, they also
introduced another requirement that at least twenty-five candidates should have
opted for that medium of instruction. This provision appears to be bizarre by
all standards since it decides a candidate’s fate on the basis of how other
people choose their medium of instruction.
The academic
fraternity and rights organisations have argued that the new pattern “systematically discriminates against
candidates who use Indian languages either as medium of examination or as a
subject” and that “this decision is not just unjust and unfair, it goes against
the spirit of democracy and swaraj that inform our republic.” On the
other hand, some senior civil servants wholeheartedly welcomed the UPSC’s reforms,
stating that it was necessary to recruit people who can structurally fit into a
bureaucracy that has constant interaction with not only different parts of
India but also the rest of the world. English is a great unifying force among
people from different parts of the country and even abroad.The Common Aptitude
Test conducted for admissions to the IIMs, where English is given about
one-third weightage, was a commonly cited example. The bank P.O examination
which recruits people to public sector banks includes English as a vital part
in their examination structure. Future bureaucrats in many Central services
will have to directly or indirectly engage with the outside community and
communication in English would be a very vital skill.
However, it needs to
be noted that Civil Services Examination not only includes the Indian
Administrative Service, the Indian Police Service, and the Indian Foreign
Service, but about twenty other Central services from Revenue to Railways. Some
of them, like the Indian Foreign Service, would definitely require people who
are good at English, but in others like the Indian Police Service, that would not
be a necessary criterion. Separate examinations would probably be an innovative
solution in the current context.
As the premier recruiting agency of the Government, the
UPSC faces the fundamental dilemma of choosing between two direct beneficiaries
of its policy decisions. On the one hand, the Commission should consider the
changing needs of an old bureaucratic apparatus that is under pressure to
change and perform differently in a globalizing world. On the other hand, the
UPSC is not just a corporate manpower consultant for an efficacy crazy
government but a constitutional body working under a democratic government.The
genuine aspirations of the young adult population, speaking different languages
and belonging to a wide and varied spectrum of society should also be
considered. In the long run, even though one compulsion here would ultimately
feed the other in a democracy, justice would not be done to a large section. There
is also the risk of alignment of the social profile of the future bureaucrats
in favor of the current elite. Perhaps we can hope that when our democracy
becomes more advanced and the majority of our young adult population and not
just the urban middle class, become equally proficient in the qualities acceptable
to ideas of modern day global governance, the demand that such changes are
essential in the Indian Civil Services, would come from the people itself.
