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| Power corrupts and absolute Power corrupts absolutely! | | An open letter to the Honourable Governor of J&K | | Shevali Raina
Sir I begin my open letter by
offering you a grand salute for scrapping the government contract given to the Reliance General Insurance Company (RGIC) and directing the Anti-Corruption Bureau to review the entire process as reported in all the leading dailies of the state and national media.
I acknowledge your strengthby exposing more scams in media related to theappointment of political workers in the Jammu and Kashmir bank by setting aside genuine selection list of 582 candidates by the previous PDP-BJP government and at the same time congratulate you for giving the youth their due by offering all the 582 candidates appointment letter.
Your raising of serious question mark on the working of Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) and admitting a youth was selected for KAS even without appearing in the examination has raised jitters in my mind too.
The Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) A.A. Latief Zaman Deva has denied the allegations of nepotism as levelled by the constitutional head of the state. It seems that both the constitutional heads are at loggerheads over the controversial issue. Although therevelations madeby the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir cannot be brushed aside and exposes the taintedsystem on which I personally relied heavily.
Through this open letter I take the liberty to express my story, pent up anger, failures and frustration with the worthy governor, respected aspirants, studentsand public of the Jammu and Kashmir who might associate with my ordeal and stand in solidarity against the corrupt system. I am optimistic that by the end of the letter the readers of the letter would recognize the need to raise the voice against injustice and tyranny.
As I proceed further, I would like to mention here that I am alaw-abiding citizen of the Jammu and Kashmir and India who has full faith in the system despite being nibbled by it several times. A civil services aspirant by profession who could not qualify the preliminary exam in thefirst two attempts of 2011 and 2012, qualified Mains exam in 2013 and prelim qualified of 2014 and 2016.
I appeared for the first time in the of Jammu and Kashmir Combined Competitive Examination (JKCCE), 2011 with no seriousness and was pretty sure about failing in the exam. The result was same as I had expected.
So, I was not at all dejected because it was clear in my head that I had not prepared at all for the exam and hence I must not expect. After tasting the first failure in civil services preliminary exam and that too in first attempt I had decided to do some research work regarding the civil services exam before sitting again for the preparation. In fact, I decided to start my preparation by taking coaching classes for one of the subjects by the end of year 2011in which I had to appear for prelim. But within fifteen days of joining the local coaching institute at Jammu I realized that the classes were not heldregularly. When I quizzed from the staff of the institute about not conducting regular classes they initially dodged my questionand later when enquired forcefully it was revealed that the visiting faculty appointed for my subject had resigned from the institute.
I was appalled by the unprofessional attitude of the coaching institute who would boast about its success rate and claims in advertisements that they have history of producing toppers! I almost had a verbal spat with the owner of the institute as I was demanding refund of the deposited fees. (The coaching of civil services is very expensive phenomena and not all have the luxury to afford it. Frankly speakingI could never manage to take coaching from Delhi which is the most touted hub for civil services coaching centers and its aspirants.) Anyway, the owner of the coaching institute agreed to pay me seventy percent of the fees adding that I had attended fifteen days classes and they have deducted rest of the fees.
I accepted the offer meeklyand left the coaching institute. The year 2012 had arrived along with the notification of conduct of JKCCE examination 2012 by JKPSC and I decided to again prepare the subject and vast general studies on my own.
With no clarity in head about the various components of general studies, I started mugging up the concepts and within no days the preparation became a nightmare for me. Despite the fact that I loved reading subjects like History, Geography, Polity I could no more relate with the concepts. It was the pressure of examination that made me more vulnerable to failure. I was angry with the way coaching institutes were conducting business so I did not approach any of them further.
Finally, the day came and I appeared again for the preliminary exam in mid of 2012. My condition was poor in examination hall and I marked wrong answers for even those questions where I was sure. Overall, I attempted the paper in a very shabby manner and the result was out. My roll number was not appearing in thequalifying list.
Again, I take the onus of failure on my head for not preparing aptly for the exam.At that point I felt that if I am not able to crack the very first stage of this long-drawn exam then the fault lies within me. I cursed myself for being non-serious, withlack of focus and the failure in exam was hitting me all the time.
One must recognize the fact that the preparation of civil services is a very long and rigorous process and the right guidance and support of family is very essential for such long battles. I had always believed in the theory of from rags to richesand from nowhere to somewhere. Literally with dream in my eyes and fire in my belly I again decided to start my preparation for the prestigious exam. I must admit that I was not capable of studying and preparing all the subjects on my own so I decided to join another coaching institute in the city which could help me in my preparation.
With an odd experience from the earlier coaching institute I enquired all my doubts regarding classes, fee structure and faculty in advance. I joined the coaching classesin new institute in October 2012 and gave a fresh start to my preparation.
Within few months I realized my past mistakes and weak areas and burned midnight oil to prepare for the next exam. The year 2013 set in with new hopes and expectations and by the grace of god I managed to qualify my preliminary and mains examination of KAS 2013 in one go.
Here I would like to expose one more truth. Before qualifying the mains exam of 2013, I had to really suffer by the hands of new coaching institute. I had paid them huge sum for the entire syllabus of the optional subjects but the faculty of one of the optional subjects betrayed us by not covering at all the syllabus of Paper II of the optional subject.
His lackadaisicalapproach towards the students and subject had filled me with anger and frustration at the crucial stage of my preparation. With hardly fifteen days left for exams, I was running in the coaching center for guidance.
Despite all odds I qualified my mains exam of 2013. I was elated beyond wordswith my performance and with all positivity appeared in my interview.The interview stage was a learning experience for me as I had the privilege to interact with the senior bureaucrats of the state. I will not quote that I was a star performer in the interview round but I tried to give a decent performance. Within two weeks of my interview the final result came out and I had not made in the final list. I had scored 1186 marks in my final result. The same struggle with the state civil services exam continued in 2014 as well. The preliminary exam of 2014 was postponed due to floods in the Jammu and Kashmir by one year and finally the exam was held in the summers of 2015. Within few weeks of qualifying the preliminary exam,a bench of Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar passed the judgement of not conducting J&K Combined Competitive (Mains) Examination, 2014 after some candidates approached it with a plea that some questions in different paper series were provided wrong answer key.
Meanwhile the JKPSC was grappling with its own issues and with the formation of new commission the above saidMains examination was successfully conducted in February 2017.On 18-06-2016, vide notification number PSC/EXM/2016/52, JKPSC advertised 277 posts in junior scale of J&K administrative service, J&K police service and J&K accounts service.
The bumper offer of 277 vacancies gave again a fresh lease of life and joy to aspirants but this happiness was not to last long as the deterioration of the condition had started in the valley with the killing of militant Burhan Wani. Hence under the unavoidable circumstances preliminary exams were postponed till March 2017.
After much delay, the preliminary examination of 2016 was successfully conducted by the JKPSC in March 2017. JKPSC through a notification dated 23-04-2017 had declared 6925 out of 47000 candidates to have qualified for the KAS Mains examination. I was lucky enough to qualify this exam too. In this result the JKPSC declared 270.477 points as cut off marks but soon released another revised merit list where it set 277.275 points as cut off marks, thus excluding 429 candidates who were declared eligible in the first merit list. I must emphasize here that I was qualifying in both the list and hence both the prelim result did not bother me.
What I was completely unawareof was the opening of Pandora box after appearing of 429 aggrieved candidates before the High court. Rest of the case is history. The Mains examination of 2016 was supposed to be held in November 2017 but it got postponed till February 2018.
Many candidates were surprised and mocking at various social media platforms about the Mains examination of 2016 which was going to be held in February 2018. They were pretty sure that the exams would be cancelled by the high court and it is simply a free test series conducted by the JKPSC for candidates.Interestingly the JKPSC was successful in conducting few Mainexams of subjectsbut again through the fresh orders of High court it had to cancel the Mains 2018 of February.
I struggled bravely for years with depression, mental trauma and harassment which this exam gave but never lost hope with this hopeless system. Finally, it was July 2018 when the Mains exams were successfully conducted and as per the directions of High court orders 6925 dully qualified candidates had to compete with 429 aggrieved candidates plus 2300 fresh new candidates.
Sir, I simply request you to understand the fact that on one hand Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)levies nominal fees of 100 rupees from male aspirants and no fees is levied from female candidates appearing in the IAS examination but the similar procedure is not followed in our state's Public Service Commission. One must consider the plight of those aspirants who do not belong to the well-off families and find it extremely difficult to arrange the exorbitant fees of the application forms for KAS exam.
The general category candidates have to pay 1000 rupees for the first round of exam and more than 500 rupees for the Mains exam. Students with reserved category pay less than the general candidates yet it is not counted as nominal fees. On several occasions aspirants have appealed the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission to decrease the fees of application forms but no action has been taken so far.
While preparing for the exam, I have heard many aspirants whispering about the fixation of rate of KAS seat, nexus between JKPSC official and politicians.Such was my one-sided love and blind loyalty towards the system that I would simply run away from such discussions calling them negative and useless and even slammed such people as mischievous rumor mongers and non-serious candidates.
The present state has been luring the youth with employment packages andstressing to shun violence and join mainstream. Nonetheless our Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stated in his speech that the youth of J&K should have laptops and not stones in their hands. However, theexposure of skeleton in the cupboard itself by the worthy head of the state of J&K has disclosed the real face of the wicked system.
A deserving candidate is butchered for the sake of these blue-eyed candidates who do not have an iota of caliber and are inducted in the services. Such nefarious actions erode the principles of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir which envisages impartial, competent and professional civil services and that is deeply committed to the rule of law, responsive and responsible government.
People must not complaint about corruption in the system when they are themselves part of it. How can we expect our society to prosper and develop with the most corrupt bureaucracy? Bureaucracy is the backbone of the Indian democracy and appointment of undeserving candidates to such important positions can be fatal for the system in itself.
This is a straight discrimination by the state with aspirants like us who see the future in the system and aspire to associate with it through qualifying such prestigious exams. It reminds me of a famous quote of the great leader Martin Luther King that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
I have humbly accepted my failures and I am brave enough to fight back because strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle. I am not boasting about my struggle with this exam but my point is on one side aspirants like me struggle hard in life to qualify the exam and on the other side there are few blue-eyed candidates who are served job on the platter without working an inch for it. Through the columns of your esteemed newspaper, I would like to appeal the worthy Governor of J&K Satya Pal Malik Sir to hold a detailed CBI inquiry in the matter related to the recruitments in government jobs and take a strict action against the culprits who play with the careers of innocent youth of the state. We expect you to deliver the justice to the youth of state who do not want to adopt the path of violence but is definitely dejected, demotivated and in despair with this brutal system. |
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