BHOPAL: Two questions from the Madhya Pradesh administrative services’ examination held on Tuesday left candidates wondering if they were being judged on the basis of merit or their loyalty to the Narendra Modi government.
One of the objective questions posed in the examination, conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPPSC), read: The Swacch Bharat campaign led by the honourable Prime Minister has a great impact on the society because 1) People understood the importance of cleanliness, and 2) People across the country like the campaign.
The options for the answer were a) Assumption 1 is strong, b) Assumption 2 is strong, c) Both assumptions are strong, and d) Neither of the assumptions are strong.
“I immediately circled option (c) as the answer to the question. It appeared as if the MPPSC was carrying out a loyalty test on candidates. I had no option because picking any other would have meant that I disapproved of Modi’s ambitious campaign,” a candidate told HT on the condition of anonymity. “I don’t think any other candidate would have dared mark another option as the correct answer either.”
Another question on the PM’s rural connectivity scheme also seemed like a part of the loyalty test. Armed with four options, it went: The objective of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna is/are….. a) Connecting villa g es to main road, b) Constructing concrete road, c) Both are correct, and d) None of the above. “I think nobody can mark this question wrong. But it is really amazing to see so much emphasis being placed on a candidate’s dedication to the central government and its schemes,” said another candidate.
{{/usCountry}}Another question on the PM’s rural connectivity scheme also seemed like a part of the loyalty test. Armed with four options, it went: The objective of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna is/are….. a) Connecting villa g es to main road, b) Constructing concrete road, c) Both are correct, and d) None of the above. “I think nobody can mark this question wrong. But it is really amazing to see so much emphasis being placed on a candidate’s dedication to the central government and its schemes,” said another candidate.
{{/usCountry}}The people who set the examination paper were not beyond targeting the BJP’s political opponents either. A question relating to SC Justice RM Lodha’s reference to the CBI as a “caged parrot” in the coal block allocation case also cropped up, much to the candidates’ amusement.