Tag: UPSC issue

Sir, before the starting of the Question Hour, hon. Chairman has said that he would permit us to raise the issue of UPSC. He said one minute would be given to each party.

Yes, Sir. We are taking our seats.

Sir, this is not the time to play political blame games. We heard what the Congress speaker said and we also heard what the BJP speaker was saying. Please let us try to depoliticize this very serious issue of young children. I want to make just in two minutes three or four quick points. Number one, there has been a knee-jerk reaction from the Government. We understand the pain of young people who are protesting. But in their hurry, they have come up with a knee-jerk reaction which has compounded the problem.

There are four parts to this, Sir. Let me deal with the second part. When you qualify for the finals, you are allowed to take your papers in the languages of the Eighth Schedule. Let us be practical. You cannot get this done by the 24th. Let us be practical and let us not play politics. This needs to be done in the long-term. The students of regional languages have to be given an opportunity to write those preliminary papers in the regional languages. In CSAT, again, please let us not jump to some conclusions; there needs to be more dialogue. Some people say CSAT is very, very good and some people say CSAT is very, very bad. There needs to be a discussion. We cannot solve this in six days. Now, the Government shot its mouth off, added fuel to the fire and now trying to look for a solution. The third point relates to the interview. That is the third part. Then, there is a fourth part where the students qualify for the IAS or other services; after 18 months, there too, English should be included in the spoken language.

Please for God’s sake, will no one ever make a demand to drop the 300 marks English paper from the Mains? No one is making that demand. So, please don’t pretend that we are making it a fight between English and Hindi. This is all we have to say, Sir. The Government is to give us a clear, reliable and a genuine assurance that they will start a serious dialogue, not do politics and this will come up in the Winter Session of Parliament.

Sir, this is a serious issue about UPSC. Yes, it is something new. The last time the Minister was here, he made a statement on UPSC. The House advised him to make his next statement in the House for the new position. He continues to give television bytes, but not speaking to the House. So, I request the Government to stop using the media as an intermediary. The Parliament is in session. Whatever they have to say, they should come and speak here.

Sir, on the Minister`s statement, I have three quick points to make. This country is so great that even though English is my mother tongue, I first learnt to speak in Bengali by choice. Now, I have three quick points.

First to the Minister, through you, Sir, please stop this television beatification of Parliament. If statements on serious issues have to be made, we urge the Minister to make those statements on the floor of Parliament. But the Minister has done this before on some other issue concerning three numbers — I will not get into that — but those statements should be made on the floor of Parliament, not to television studios. He can make it later.

Secondly, my own leader, Mamata Banerjee, has shown the way where when it comes to Railway exams, people were given the opportunity to write those exams in a language they are comfortable in. Sir, this is not an issue of English versus Hindi, certainly not. This is an issue regarding all the languages.

In the campaign of the BJP before the election, we heard a lot about connecting with the youth of India. If you really want to connect with the youth of India, reconnect and do it now, maintain status quo because young people around the country are watching you, are watching us. We need to act on their behalf ; we need to act now.