AAP demands postponement of civil services prelims

The party said that the UPSC must immediately take back the online admit cards for the preliminary civil services examination

The AAP Saturday demanded the postponement of the preliminary examination for the civil services and blamed the BJP-led government and the UPSC for the ongoing crisis over the Civil Service Aptitude Test (CSAT).

In the past few days, ongoing protests by hundreds of civil services aspirants against the CSAT turned violent after police reportedly used force to disperse them.

"The UPSC must announce postponement of the preliminary examination, which are scheduled to begin from Aug 24," said a statement from the Aam Aadmi Party.

"The UPSC must immediately take back the online admit cards for the preliminary civil services examination, which became the latest flashpoint on Thursday," it added.

"The UPSC's handling and its strange silence, coupled with the lack of sensitivity shown by the BJP central government, has made the country witness a rare sight of students preparing for the civil services examination being forced to take to streets at a time which is extremely crucial for their preparation," it added.

The aspirants have been demanding the scrapping of the CSAT, calling it discriminatory for students from humanities and Hindi backgrounds.

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 10 level).