Is ‘Autonomous’ UP Public Service Commission Pushing ‘Brand Yogi’?

How will Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath impact Bharatiya Janata Party in view of his pro-active tours to other states? What is the reaction of general public over the murder of a police inspector in Bulandshahr district? How is the administration of Yogi government in UP? Why was the name of Allahabad changed to Prayagraj? What is the history of Prayag in this context?

These are some of questions that sound innocuous, natural and inquisitive at the same time. But what if these questions are put before aspirants appearing for an interview for State Civil Service examinations?

Yogi-centric questions in the ongoing interviews for Provincial Civil Services (PCS) conducted by Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC), are raising eyebrows on whether these are being tutored by the political masters in the state to elicit the response of youth, or over-enthusiastic Yogi loyalists in the boards, in the garb of UPPSC members, are conducting an indirect survey ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. The questions were, in fact, disclosed by many aspirants who appeared before various interview boards during the past few days. 

Usually, higher services examinations bodies avoid asking political questions in both written exams and interviews, but the recent trend shows a clear shift, creating enough ground for doubts over the intent behind such a change.

Surprisingly, these questions are coming from a so-called autonomous UPPSC, which is already facing a CBI probe into allegations of unfair recruitment of officers during the last regime of Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government . It may be recalled that the commission was squarely blamed for favouring students of a particular caste and category.

There is a view that the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government did try to salvage the reputation of the Prayagraj-based UPPSC by changing the guard and appointing some ‘well-meaning’ new members but for this latest ‘aberration’ reported by many aspirants.

According to the father of one of the aspirants, his son had appeared in many such interviews but never before were any questions of political nature asked. While some people say that this clearly looks like the agenda of the saffron party government, they feel it cannot be challenged in any way as it is prerogative of the interviewing authority.

Prof A Singh, who has appeared in interview boards as an expert, said normally the display of political leanings was not required for government job interviews, and this applied to both sides of the table.

However, Rajendra Chaudhary, former Minister and spokesperson of Samajwadi Party, hit back at the BJP government, saying that  they did a lot of mud-slinging about misconduct of  UPPSC during the previous regime, but ''now you can see, who is going to impose its agenda ,'' suggesting that such questions were “planted” to get an insight into public mood ahead of the 2019 general elections.

There are five interview boards, out of which two boards are said to be throwing such questions. A recently appointed member of UPPSC, on condition of anonymity, said they have not received any instructions from the government with regard to the conduct of examination or interviews. "If somebody sticks to what looks like some agenda-driven queries, it must have been purely personal or based on an individual's political ideology," he said, underling that many board members were appointed after the BJP came to power in the state.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Uttar Pradesh.)