BJP for linguistic concessions in UPSC exam
Asserting that the linguistic concessions made by the UPSC are very much essential for giving more opportunities to all vernacular language students, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday said it will raise the issue in the Parliament if the central agency authorized to conduct the Civil Services Examination closes this option for it will be anti-people and anti-development.

"The BJP always believes that the linguistic concessions made by the UPSC are very much essential for giving more opportunities to all vernacular language students and particularly this policy has benefitted the UPSC exams which are conducted in all vernacular languages that option should not be closed," said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.

"If that is closed, it will be anti-people, anti-development and that is why we will oppose it and we will raise this issue in this session of Parliament," he added. The Shiv Sena has warned that it would disrupt the UPSC exams in Maharashtra if its demand to include Marathi in the syllabus was not met.

The UPSC has notified the new pattern, which will spare candidates from compulsorily qualifying other language papers like Hindi or any of the VIII Schedule languages, which includes Marathi. Earlier, candidates had to qualify in English and another language paper whose marks were, however, not counted for short-listing aspirants.

The new pattern, which is aimed at giving more emphasis on assessing general studies and aptitude skills of aspirants of country's most prestigious exam, gives more weight to general studies and aptitude skills.

The UPSC has also introduced an English language paper, whose marks will count in final selection of aspirants for services like IAS, IFS, IPS, IRS and other sought after Central jobs. The civil services preliminary examination will be held on May 26 this year and the last date for filing online applications is April 4.