The students’ agitation in Prayagraj was for the fourth consecutive day against the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission’s (UPPSC) decision to conduct ‘PCS Pre’ and ‘RO-ARO’ exams in two days. Even before the matter could get more complicated, the UP government, showing foresight, directed UPPAC to conduct the PCS exam in a single shift in one day as per the demand of the students. Now the PCS and RO/ARO exam has been postponed. In fact, in a week’s time, by-elections will be held in 9 assemblies of the state. And the way the opposition was fueling the issue, the possibility of the problem escalating increased. These by-elections have become a matter of life and death for CM Yogi Adityanath. Earlier today, protesters went to the Commission’s office to convey their views. Since police had to use force against student protesters a day earlier, police were more prepared on Thursday. Despite this, the students broke the barricades and reached the commission’s headquarters. Evidently, seeing the matter worsening, the government should have quickly contacted the UPPSC.
1- The students’ demand was justified
The students allege that the Commission has not conducted the exams for the last two years. The UP Civil Services notification released in January 2024 was for the March exam, which was postponed to October. Also, the February RO-ARO exam was canceled due to a paper leak. The exam was again scheduled for October, but now students were furious over the sudden announcement of holding the exam in December and conducting it in two shifts. Even before the exams were continually postponed and cancelled, the government was falling out of favor.
Students said the normalization process is unfair to them and that their hard work is not being properly evaluated. There is no doubt that normalization has never been useful for the oppositions. Because of this, results are declared using the Duckworth Lewis formula, which is a very outdated method. There has been opposition to this since the 1990s. In the exam conducted under standardization, it is not necessary for the exams in each shift to be equally difficult or easy. By making different merits of each one and bringing them to a normal category, many norms are broken. The protesting students allege that the changes made in the examination system may have a negative impact on their ranking and selection. If students demand to take the exam on the same day and in the same shift, then there is nothing wrong with it.
The Commission said that by conducting the exam simultaneously, the exam was conducted in many such centers where there was fear of leakage of documents and other types of cheating. But this problem can be solved with more resources. But Duckworth Lewis’s problem is such that it has no solution. If the Commission agrees to exclude the PCS exam from standardization, it means that it must also be seeing some flaw in this process. If a rule is not correct for one exam, then it is obvious on what basis it can be justified in other exams. Competitive students claim that the Commission will conduct the exam for 411 ARO-ARO posts on December 7 and 8 in 41 districts, while in all 75 districts it should be held in one shift on the same day. This exam has already been cancelled. The Commission is expected to soon issue guidelines in this regard as well.
2- Just before the by-elections there is such a big movement.
Who is behind this type of movement before the by-elections? From the way the movement suddenly gained momentum, it seems like some people were definitely behind it. Because in Prayagraj students preparing for competitive exams are not organized. So were opposition forces behind this movement or was this movement the result of infighting within the yogi government itself? The way Akhilesh Yadav was tweeting continuously, at least the message was being sent that the opposition is playing politics on this. And politics should also get involved in these issues because only in this way are rights achieved. But creating a movement by deliberately provoking it cannot be considered correct at all. This too at a time when voting for the by-elections will be held in the state in a week’s time. Akhilesh Yadav himself writes in X that…
If BJP only understands the mathematics of elections, then hear that if other contestants like PCS/RO/ARO/LOWER SUBORDINATE students and their family members are included, then this number is around 1 crore. If this “large number” is divided by about 400 assembly seats, then the BJP’s votes will be reduced by about 25,000 votes in each assembly seat, which means the BJP will be reduced to double digits. Hopefully, understanding this mathematics, the BJP’s own heartless government will stop the atrocities today and fulfill the democratically legitimate demands of the agitated youth. The BJP has developed a habit of, fearing public anger, it is eventually forced to concede, but only when all its violent methods fail and when its negative anti-employment policy fails completely. BJP is going to end forever. Today’s candidate says he doesn’t want the BJP!
Today, perhaps the government has understood these mathematics of Akhilesh Yadav. And the government made the right decision in time. Otherwise, the BJP would not have been able to stop the damage in the by-elections.
3- Why did no minister come to talk to the students for 4 days?
But what is surprising is that the only special issue on which the Bharatiya Janata Party could not achieve the expected success in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh was the government’s indifference towards the contests. Despite this, the Uttar Pradesh government did not appear to take the issue as seriously as it should have. Let’s imagine that in a week there will be by-elections for 9 seats and that the government will blow the flute of peace against the student movement whose fire could spread to the entire state at any moment. Even after four days, no minister reached the spot. There are two deputy chief ministers in the state, but all of them were just playing on Twitter. Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya’s entire politics is from Allahabad, despite this, was he not allowed to reach there or did he deliberately disappear? A report by Dainik Bhaskar claims that all Allahabad MPs and MPs were supporting the students in the competitive exams. Only Samajwadi Party MPs and MPs were not present in this. BJP MPs and MPs were among those who supported the students’ demands.
