Can MPSC take the Right Decision this time ?

Ngamtinlun Touthang *

Manipur Public Service Commission (MPSC) Building in Imphal in March 2013 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

Mohen Yambem, in an article published in a local daily, described Manipur Public Service Commission (MPSC) as "Mother of all controversies". The same paper also recently wrote an Editorial under the title: "Thy name is controversy: MPSC and civil services exam". In fact, there were many reports/articles published in almost all the local dailies regarding the anomalies of Manipur Civil Service (MCS) examination 2014 conducted by MPSC since the past few months.

Surely, MPSC is not the mother of all controversies; but this much is clear that it (MPSC) has always been caught in controversy in all the exams [with the exception of that of 2013]. This was rightly described by the editorial mentioned above when it says: "Every time MPSC conducts civil services exams, it unfailingly hit the newspaper headlines for all the wrong reasons."

The statement has been already proved by the ongoing agitation carried out by various students' organisation especially the Joint Students' Coordination Committee (JSCC). The JSCC has decried the failure of MPSC to come up with any response to "its appeal to put on hold" the process of holding MCS main exam 2014 after several anomalies were detected.

Since the 1990s, MCS exams conducted by MPSC have been always marred by controversies which sometimes force the Guwahati High Court, and even Supreme Court, to intervene. But after declaring the MCS exam 2013 successfully, the people of the state, especially the civil service aspirants, started keeping their faith in the Commission. However, this new acquired trust was short-lived. Less than a month after the declaration of the 2013 result, MPSC was once again caught by the same anomalies as before.

The errors detected in the recently held/declared MCS (Preliminary) exam 2014 were so serious that many students' organisation as well as candidates started raising their voice to cancel the said exam and conduct afresh. Some of the students' bodies demanding for cancellation of the same include, besides JSCC, All Tribal Students' Union Manipur (ATSUM), All Naga Students' Association, Manipur (ANSAM), All Manipur Muslim Girls Students' Union (AMMGSU), The United Minority and Students' Federation of North East (UMSFNE), among others. Memorandum and representation were also submitted to the Hon'ble Governor and Chief Minister by the student bodies for the same.

However, in spite of repeated appeals from the student bodies and candidates, the Commission preferred to remain adamant. "Admitting errors in several questions set for the preliminary examination" which led to the declaration of another 290 candidates as successful after 467 were selected, a clarification was made by the MPSC Secretary but that failed to convince the agitating students' community. It may be noted here that while the ratio selected for Mains in 2013 against Vacant Post was just a little more than 1:5; it is almost 1:20 this time! In fact, any right thinking person who read the news item would find the clarification rather funny.

Probably to clear the air, Mark List of all the selected candidates was declared but that too convince nobody. This shows that the student communities are not someone who may be convinced easily by playing tricks.

Here, it would be worth recalling some of the issues raised by the students' community and candidates. First, there were 16 wrong Answer Keys which is not acceptable for such an exam meant to recruit the best brains to manage the affairs of the state. Answer Keys were published twice on 24 April and 16 May. In the first, the Commission declared 15 answer keys as wrong; and in the second, the number of such questions increases to 16.

Second, about 70 questions out of a total of 200 were said to have been copied from UPSC CSP exam questions from the past ten years. This means that any candidate who had just gone through with the UPSC past questions would have easily clear the exam. It is worse to imagine that even the best candidate who did not read those questions would find no place in the result.

Third, the results of the prelim exam were declared twice (on 14 and 16 May), which is probably a unique creation of the Commission. The Commission might have been compelled to declare the result in a phase-wise manner since it also issued the Answer Key twice where the answers of at least 15 questions were altered (for example, in the Booklet Series A, the answers of question numbers: 10, 23, 29, 55, 57, 61, 83, 99, 105, 119, 126, 127, 140, 150 & 196 were not the same in the first and second answer keys).

This situation compelled some candidates like Thangcha Haokip to claim that a friend of his who scored the same mark got selected in the second list while he did not. This may be because though they get the same marks based on the first key, their marks might not be the same based on the second answer key (this was before the declaration of the prelim marks). Here, one get confuse which of the two answer keys were the correct one.

Apart from the issues raised above, there are also other things which require proper attention. For example, though the number of candidates declared successful in the two-phase prelim result was much higher than that of the previous one, many candidates who cleared the 2013 prelim exam failed to make the list. While there is no guarantee that candidates who cleared last year will also clear this time, the above issues make one doubtful.

Some candidate also pointed out that many successive roll numbers were declared successful in the prelim exam which seriously questions the sanctity of the exam. The successive roll numbers in both the result combine make-up to more than 200 which is highly suspicious. Moreover, a roll number (03573) appears twice in the result!

Again, the exam which was re-scheduled for 24 April 2014 in the last minute collided with B.Ed entrance exam. Comparing a civil service exam with an entrance exam may not be appropriate to many. But considering the degree of unemployment problem facing the state, postponing the exam on such day compelling many candidates to miss one of the two is a serious matter.

Looking at the above narration, the steps taken up by JSCC and other student bodies is highly laudable. Now, as the Commission's office has already been closed by JSCC), the Commission would certainly be facing a hard time.

MPSC would not have been in this situation had it took proper decision in the initial stage. Postponing the prelim exam (which was earlier fixed for 23 April, Khongjom Day) to 24 April in the last hour when Volunteers of JSCC closed the exam centres could have been an eye-opener, but the Commission failed to read the pulse of the people.

In this situation, whether the Commission like it or not, the only option available is to cancel the said exam and call another prelim exam afresh before it gets into more trouble. However, if it did so, what would be the fate of those 757 odd candidates who were already declared selected for Mains?

Since this is the handy-work of the incumbent members of the Commission, any eventuality that comes up should be the responsibility of MPSC and the State Government, the latter for being a silent spectator under such circumstances. The only thing a candidate (both those who pass and fail) could do now is to wait and see what the future course of action of the Commission is in this regard.