UPSC protest on in Delhi, RJD MP supports

About 60 UPSC aspirants continued their anti-CSAT protest at the Jantar Mantar here with RJD MP Pappu Yadav and his supporters joining in, police said Wednesday.

The aspirants, demanding scrapping of the CSAT and deferment of the Aug 24 examination date, Wednesday remained seated at the protest site, located in the heart of the city, for the third consecutive day. The Jantar Mantar protest began Monday evening.

Some Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supporters, led by Pappu Yadav, gathered outside the BJP headquarters on Ashoka Road at about 1.30 p.m. and marched to Jantar Mantar while raising slogans against the BJP and the CSAT examination.

Pappu Yadav, also known as Rajesh Ranjan, said: "It is not a question of English or Hindi. It is a question of the rights of youths who belong to poor and lower middle-class families and come from villages, those who have studied in Indian languages and will not compromise on this issue."

Some members of Delhi-based Akhil Bhartiya Mithila Sangh also participated in the protest.

"The protest is peaceful. At night, only 15-20 protesters were sitting at the site, but the numbers went up to 60 during the day," Deputy Commissioner of Police S.B.S. Tyagi told IANS.

"We are firm on our demand to postpone the examination date and scrapping of CSAT. Our protest will continue till the government accedes to our demands," said Kripal Bansal, a Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam aspirant.

The government Monday had said marks for English language comprehension skills will not be included in preparing the UPSC merit list.

The students started their protest from July 27 in Mukherjee Nagar, a residential area in north Delhi near Delhi University that is popular with students who pour into the capital from other states to prepare for the civil services examination.

The protesting aspirants have been asking the government to scrap the CSAT, as they say it "discriminates" against those with Hindi and humanities background.

The civil services preliminary examination will be held Aug 24 with some changes announced by the government, including that English marks in CSAT-II will not be included for gradation or merit in the preliminary examination.

There are two compulsory papers of 200 marks each in the preliminary examination, known as CSAT-I and CSAT-II.

The CSAT-II paper carries questions on comprehension, interpersonal skills, including communication skills, logical reasoning and analytical ability, decision-making and problem-solving, general mental ability, basic numeracy, and English language comprehension skills (of Class X level).

The CSAT pattern was implemented from 2011. The examination is conducted in three stages -- preliminary, main and interview -- to choose candidates for Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service and Indian Police Service, among others.