Samajwadi Party leader and Kannauj MP Akhilesh Yadav has waded into the protests against Uttar Pradesh's Public Service Commission with the slogan “Naukri Bhajpa ke agenda mein hai hi nahin, unhone chalwaye laathi danda’ (roughly translated as 'jobs are not on the BJP agenda, they use sticks').
While Yadav's take on the state government is more generic, aspirants have been specifically protesting against the Uttar Pradesh PSC’s decision to hold the Provincial Civil Services (PCS) and Review Officer-Assistant Review Officer (RO-ARO) preliminary exams on different dates and in multiple shifts. Protesters are demanding a “single-day, single-shift schedule” for the exams.
Yadav, in an open letter on Tuesday, said that the BJP government in the state had succeeded in getting students away from their study tables and on to the roads to protest.
On Monday, aspirants to the above mentioned exams protested the entire day and through the night against the commission’s proposed new rules. Protests are ongoing at the time of filing this report.
Yadav’s letter says that the self-proclaimed largest political party of the world is nowhere to be seen when students are out on the streets.
He also claimed that parents and guardians of these students would no longer fall for the BJP’s lies and that the party had ‘emotionally blackmailed’ people.
The aspirants are protesting as they believe that exams on different days will have different question papers, and so, some will be easier. It might give some candidates a better chance at selection, they say.
Ashok Kumar, secretary of the state’s PSC, said that the students were being misled by illegal coaching centres, cheating mafia and anti-social elements. “Students should avoid these false narratives and concentrate on preparing for the exams. The normalisation process will ensure that all students are judged similarly and that no one has an unfair advantage,” he said.
This year, some 5.76 lakh candidates are scheduled to take the PCS preliminary exam. The exam requires 1,758 centres but as only 978 centres have been approved, the exam is slated for two days. Similarly, for the RO-ARO exam, more than 10.76 lakh candidates have filled the forms and once again due to the paucity of centres, it is to be held in three sessions.