ABVP says fight not against English but poor translation

It is the ‘poor’ Hindi translation of English comprehension passages and other questions of Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) that is bothering the aspirants, and not the English part of the paper, BJP’s students’ wing ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) said on Sunday.

ABVP, which has been protesting with civil services aspirants against CSAT demanded the recently-introduced test to be scrapped. It also demanded that the exam’s present format, which makes clearing the English part of the main exams compulsory, be either scrapped or changed.

‘Many of the students who take up this exam are from rural or non-English background which makes it difficult for them to qualify this exam. A change in the present form of CSAT is what we are asking for’, ABVP Delhi unit secretary Saket Bahuguna said.

ABVP further said that, the question papers should be set originally in Hindi and regional languages also because the translations they (UPSE) provide are ‘mechanical’ and ‘impractical.’

‘If that is not possible, we urge that the translations be done manually and not mechanically,’ Bahuguna said. ‘The exact Google translation of English language in CSAT questions often changes its meaning entirely. What is needed here is manual translation in contemporary language,’ said Arushi Mishra, an IAS aspirant.

ABVP also demanded that aspirants who had appeared for the exam in 2011 be given a special chance as they were the first ones to sit for the newly-implemented CSAT.

Meanwhile, National Students Union of India, the students’ wing of Congress, also held two major protests on the same issue, and demanded that CSAT be scrapped. Both ABVP and NSUI have also asked for CSAT exam scheduled on 24 August to be postponed. 

The country’s prestigious civil services examination is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in three stages - preliminary (CSAT), main, and interview.