August 6, 2014
Trinamool seeks clarification from Centre on WTO stand and UPSC row in Rajya Sabha
Trinamool MP Derek O'Brien today soughtclarifications from the Govt of India on the UPSC row and India's stand on WTO.Speaking in the Rajya Sabha he demanded that prelim exam of UPSC be held in alllanguages listed in 8th Schedule.
On the WTO issue, he said the Govt shoulduse its communication skills to take the Opposition parties in confidence onimportant issues and Bills.
Hereis the full transcript of his speech on UPSC row:
This is not the time to play politicalblame game, we heard what the Congress Spokesperson has said and we have heardwhat the BJP was saying. Please let us try and de-politicize this very seriousissue for of young children. I want to make, just in two minutes, 3 or 4 quickpoints.
Number one – there has been a knee jerkreaction from the government. We understand the pain of the young peopleprotesting but in their hurry they have come up with a knee jerk reaction whichhas compounded the problem.
There are four parts to this Sir, let medeal with the second part – when you qualify for the finals you are allowed totake your exam in the languages of the 8th Schedule. The simple solution is -not for the 24th lets be practical, you cannot get this done by the 24th, let'sbe practical and let's not play politics; this need to be done in the long term- the students have to be given an opportunity to write the preliminary papersin regional languages.
Regarding CSAT, again let's not jump tosome conclusions. There needs to be more dialogue. Some people say CSAT is verygood and some people say CSAT is very bad. There needs to be a discussion; wecannot solve this in 6 days. Now the government shut its mouth off and addedfuel to the fire by not trying to look for a solution.
The third part is the interviews and thereis a fourth part where the students qualify for IAS and other services. Thereis 18 months there too. English should be included in the spoken language andplease for God's sake no one ever demand to drop the 300 mark English paperfrom the mains. No one is making that demand so please do not pretend that weare making a fight between English and Hindi. This is all we have to say Sir.The Government needs to give us a clear, reliable and genuine assurance thatthey will start serious dialogue and not do politics.
To read the full transcript of his speechon WTO, click here.
