The abnormal swelling in the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) coaching centers and aspirants over the years unmistakably indicates an interesting graph.
Moreover, the frenzied celebration and worshipping that follows UPSC results, media houses running after the candidates and all coaching centers advertising same candidates over and over again should be seen how UPSC rank-holders are often turned into marketable commodities.
Motivated less by the opportunity to serve their country, but more by the fringe benefits of holding important bureaucratic positions, these power hungry aspirants not necessarily guarantee for a wise nation. Also, the hype within Dalits (Tina Dabi and Kanishka Kataria) and OBCs about their caste people clearing these exams can be understood within the framework of accumulating power to rise above in the political and economic structures of the Indian democracy.
That is why controversies like why should a Dalit individual thank his girlfriend instead of Ambedkar assume such importance. Because these castes see the act of clearing UPSC as a way of gaining political control for their castes, but when the individual symbolically disassociates themselves from any identification with Ambedkar or Dalit struggle they face a certain moral backlash from the community.
I first observed this madness when I entered the hostel of Kirori Mal College; we were around 35 students from the first year who were summoned by our seniors for a round of introduction. They asked us, obviously with an intent to ridicule our misplaced aspirations, “how many of you will give UPSC?” Except me and my friend from the English Department, all 33 students had their hands up in the air immediately as a reply to that question.
Even today, a lot of juniors engage in the most effective task of our century- boot-licking their seniors who have recently cleared UPSC to gain some sort of favors. Hence an entire crowd swarms over to the person who has recently cleared UPSC to get pictures clicked and posted on Facebook and Instagram with most liberally sugar coated captions. Not only that, relatives, neighbors, and others distantly related to the candidate also flock in anticipation for some sort of benefits.
These are ways to strengthen relations which can have monetary benefits later in life. What I say here isn’t just about UPSC, UPSC is just a part of it, the scholar of neo-liberalism. Prof. David Harvey has already suggested how global capitalism thrives through relations and networking which are primarily based on personal affiliations rather than individual worth and potential to perform.
A related example of how our society relies on networking is the huge success of LinkedIn, a platform which literally tells you about places where your alumni are located and how sycophancy can help.
A few years ago, one of my close seniors asked me one morning “should I leave MPhil to pursue UPSC?” I was rather sad, for this question aroused many reactions in my mind. He came from a poor background in Jharkhand and was doing good as a scholar in History. He has secured a seat in DU’s MPhil course which was itself a proof of his excellent performance. Then why should he let go the fruit of his labour and aspire for a thing afresh?
I advised him that you are only 22, do your MPhil and try securing NET in next two years, this will at least secure your career and maybe after two years you can re-think of preparing for UPSC because you will have a solid backup plan. But he didn’t think it through and left his MPhil. Although he still struggles to clear it after a few failed attempts and lives with tremendous pressure on his mind, pressure enough to propel a person to commit suicide. I still wish him the best, but things haven’t really gone well between us, and our relations went sour afterward.
Another morning, I was travelling in metro to Vishvidhayala while reading a book, a guy approached and enquire about the route to Karol Bag, I immediately deduced two conclusions from this- he was new in Delhi and he was looking for some UPSC coaching classes. As we talked more, he told me that he had completed his MBBS and he was even practicing but now he wants to clear UPSC and had closed down his clinic for it. I was taken aback, why would somebody go through that arduous training of five years and become a doctor, if they wanted to clear UPSC.
A few months back, I was travelling in Mawana, a town in U.P famous for its sugar mills. However, the scenario is rapidly changing there now. My cousin took me to a lane where he pointed his finger towards a billboard. The billboard read “UPSC classes by Vikram Sir, one time Interview faced, one time mains cleared and two times Pre cleared” he told me that all that was a lie as he pointed towards many such billboards strewn across the town, he highlighted that hardly any one of them would have even cleared SSC and if a raid were to happen all this will be cleared as if these coachings never even existed in the first place.
“All these are people who went to Delhi to attend coaching classes and after unsuccessful attempts came back to the town and implemented this model for making money and fooling nearby village students who want to crack exams related to police services, army, etc alongside SSC and UPSC,” he added.
There is a need to understand how these vicious coaching institutes are exploiting millions of students who aren’t getting substantial education in behavior and moral upliftment. Since the model of education these institutions follow doesn’t include any moral and character building curriculum. It just relies upon stuffing students with information without building a resilient character, a task that only happens when a person is trained in a university with a certain holistically developed pedagogical framework over a considerable tenure. The model of education in these institutions certainly lacks any interest in harmonizing individual’s relation with the larger society.
If the universities are accredited with governing and quality boards such as NAAC why can’t these coaching centers be put under check for assessing their social utility and service impact? They seem to be running in an unrestrained manner, exercising immense control over the life of students in determining the expenditure of their resources.
They certainly lack any regulated syllabus and provide a promise for a slapdash way of upward social mobility. Students who are able to stuff their heads with facts are intelligent and can crack the so-called UPSC exam, rest are just parasitic failures devoid of moral ethics.
They will exploit people because they didn’t learn any sort of moral and ethical sense of responsibility towards their society and larger masses. Some of them open up their own coachings and do their best in replicating same exploitative structures which once exploited them.
Everybody who joins UPSC starts advising “you also join UPSC” and when one asks them they chant the same rant about the perks associated that come along, “servants, bungalows blah blah”. This kind of conversations is more commonly seen in close groups, families, neighbors, and relatives, who keep glorifying the position of a civil servant. They simply act as the agents of this multi-billion industry, providing people with false hopes.
And how do we account for one single candidate advertised as being trained by ten different institutions? Allegations on candidates taking the money and associating their success with multiple coaching institutes is also a sad state of affairs. This has triggered this false belief that a person should take test series from as many institutions as possible. A fact that is making these coachings earn a hefty sum of money. They simply put up fraudulent advertisements in which these ‘toppers’ are complicit.
Second, and more degrading concern that this UPSC malady perpetuates is the disparaging of all other services and their value. Why? Because as a holder of bureaucratic position you will be entitled to feudal privileges like servants, helpless and needy people will bow down to you and raise your power-hungry egos. There will be a gardener, a driver and so on and so forth. All the privileges and comforts that perhaps other career professions won’t easily provide one with.
Already our society’s irrationally high regard to science and disregard to humanities is making us a directionless tech-obsessed society where technology is exercising excessive control over human life, in addition to jeopardizing the natural ecosystem.
On top of it, UPSC belittles all other services, people clearing UPSC are paraded, interviewed like celebrities and worshiped among students as deities. All for what? Will these rituals of celebration guarantee their credibility as public servants in the future. Will they never engage in corruption? No other sector of service is revered to this extent. My simple question to such a society is- where should you then find motivated teachers, engineers, and doctors if you will make your youth go crazy for ‘civil services’.
Every year students are dumped in coaching centers with an unfortunate logic that if you cannot do anything with a B.A, BSC or Msc then try UPSC. Coaching centers continue to milk such directionless youngsters. Lack of counseling and poor education make them go through yet another level of drudgery and forgery.
This, in the long run, gives rise to a very unsatisfied and angry youth who becomes saddened to the extent that they lose sensitivity to gender, environment, and other such progressive concerns. They are disillusioned and a disillusioned society invites great havoc. What are the relations of such failing students with their family? What about the self-esteem of these students who couldn’t clear this gargantuan exam? Our youth is already facing tremendous challenges, this unnecessarily maddening hype about UPSC certainly pressurizes them even more.