UPSC vs Civil Service Aspirants: From Fresh Attempts to Removal of CSAT, List of Demands by Candidates – News18

Ever since the results of the UPSC CSE 2023 preliminary examination are out, a group of aspirants are protesting and seeking the removal of CSAT from the civil services exam pattern. The group has also petitioned in court and requested the central government to look into their concerns. These grieved students also held a press conference to share their demands with the media.

This is not the first time that civil service aspirants have taken to the streets and voiced their concerns. This article will trace the history of protests led by students against the Union Public Service Commission.

The Story So Far: Top Demands by UPSC Aspirants

It was on June 28, 2023, when several UPSC aspirants petitioned the Delhi High Court challenging the UPSC CSE prelims 2023 and seeking re-conduction of the examination. The group of 17 UPSC aspirants filed the case asking the central government and Commission to reconduct both UPSC CSE prelims and general papers 1 and 2.

Further, the student’s association also filed a case in the Central Administrative Tribunal to reduce the qualifying criteria of CSAT from 33 per cent to 23 per cent similar to the reduction made in the UPSC-CDS examination of 2019. Apart from the above they highlighted, the alleged unfair treatment faced by aspirants from Hindi and vernacular language backgrounds, the need to revise the qualifying criteria for the UPSC-CSE CSAT 2023 exam, compensatory attempts for aspirants affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for an expert committee to evaluate the GS paper UPSC aspirants.

This is not the first time when students are seeking ways to redress their demands but their ‘concerns have largely remained the same’. Back in 2013, the student body protested over the change in the UPSC syllabus. They objected to the exclusion of foreign languages like Persia and Arabic from the optional list for the UPSC mains examination. The protest was held both by students and teachers from leading Universities. Several groups termed the modification as ‘elitisation of UPSC Syllabus‘ and demanded a rollback.

Another instance from 2013, when the student body in a memorandum to the then UPSC Chairperson questioned the format of the CSAT examination and alleged that it “favoured students with medical, science and engineering background”. They termed the modification as a ‘disadvantage to those from arts and humanities background’. Despite opposition against the UPSC decision, some UPSC aspirants disagreed with the protest and said “The purpose of the civil services tests is not to placate students but to find the best minds who can lead the country and who are knowledgeable in every subject, including math, physics, history, etc. If they don’t meet these prerequisites, they should take another exam—there are lots of exams.”

Again in 2014, scores of UPSC aspirants marched toward Jantar Mantar to remove CSAT from the preliminary examination. Till now the demand hangs. The stir was prompted when the central government decided that English test scores in CSAT will not be included for grading or merit for UPSC CSE prelims. Protesters sat for more than 26 days in North Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar and then shifted to Jantar Mantar. Many opposition leaders also supported the demands of the students. The situation become tense when students managed to enter the Parliament during the winter session condemning the ‘arbitrary move’ of the Commission.

Apart from the removal of the CSAT examination, the students demanded three fresh attempts and three years of age relaxation when UPSC changed the examination pattern without giving students to prepare. Various slogans were trending on Twitter and one such was ‘Fight Injustice Against UPSC Civil Service Aspirants’. As then V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State for Personnel and Training said, “Around 57 percent of the UPSC syllabus was changed by the decision.” The Commission did not respond and the central government proved to be helpless on the issue. The concern lies that UPSC is an autonomous institution hence any government cannot direct the Commission.

Many protesting students claim that the change in the UPSC CSE syllabus has marginalized rural students and non-English speaking candidates. Citing data from the website of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) they claimed that the number non- technical aspirants have drastically reduced compared to engineering ones. Accessing the old data as shared by the then-protesting students shows that prior to 2011 when the CSAT was launched, the percentage of students with an arts background passing the civil services examination was roughly equivalent to that of those with an engineering background (between 28 and 30 per cent). While the proportion of students with an engineering background increased to 49.7 per cent, the percentage of students with an arts background who qualified for the exam fell to 15.38 per cent in 2011.

The UPSC was embroiled in a controversy in March 2013 after making significant changes to the format of the main test. The most significant adjustment was to the English language test, which had previously only been intended for qualification. As a result of the outcry caused both inside and outside of Parliament, the government was compelled to retract its decision, and the UPSC published a new notification stating that the English test scores would not be used to determine the merit list.

The demands of the UPSC aspirants were also voiced by the group in 2019. The candidates who appeared between 2011 and 2015 believe that they were put at a disadvantage. After the Covid pandemic, in 2022, students asked UPSC to give an extra attempt to affected students. For the same, students held a protest at Delhi’s Rajender Nagar, which is known as the IAS coaching hub. The grieved students claimed that SSC (GD), and Agniveer were given an extra attempt which was not the case with them.