Disband the MPSC
Amarnath's bunch of jokers here ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 11, 2012 -

A couple of decades back, cricket player Mohinder Amarnath is understood to have described the members of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, a bunch of jokers, for the manner in which they ran the Board.

Now, if what the Democratic Students' Association, Manipur, DESAM, for short, has said is true then what do we call the people bossing over the Manipur Public Service Commission ? Maybe what the BCCI did to provoke such a statement from a personality like Amarnath will definitely pale in comparison with the manner in which the Babus have been running MPSC.

As things stand, the preliminary examination conducted last year to recruit Manipur Civil Service, Manipur Police Service, Manipur Finance Service and Allied Service Officers, was mired in raging controversies, the most disgusting part being the copy and paste questions from a website.

Now comes another bomb shell.

The questions asked in English Literature Part I and English Literature Part II for the main examinations were exact replicas of the questions asked in 2005 ! The sequence, the marks, the very set of questions are the same, as per the documents given by DESAM.

Mastering the art of fudging or giving a new definition to the term pen pushers ! This is a joke played not only on the candidates but on the people as a whole.

A clear reflection of incompetence, arrogance, and ineptness polluting and defiling the sanctity of an institution which is there to recruit the best brains who will one day go on to occupy important positions and whose judgement and reading of the situation will have a profound impact on the people and the land.

This is not the way an institution like the MPSC should be run.

The rot runs deep.

Why is it that controversies continue to dog MPSC every time examinations are conducted to recruit officers to the MCS, MPS, MFS and Allied Services ? For one, it is the sheer incompetency that is on display here.

Number two, it is a testimony of how corruption has eaten away the very soul of its existence.

Number three, to many the MPSC has increasingly become an institution for retired bureaucrats to relive their days of Babudom and a place to provide a quiet and dignified exit route to politicians who are no longer wanted and for the serving officials, a temporary posting where they can sit back and relax while enjoying the perks and privileges that come along with being associated with an autonomous body.

A white elephant it is, the MPSC.

In the medical world, the best method to avoid appendicitis is to remove the appendix and bring this to the present realm and the best prescription would be to disband this institution for the time being, go in for a thorough mopping up exercise and set things right.

Who were the people entrusted with the job of setting the question papers for English literature ? By all account it appears to be an extension of the copy and paste job done in the preliminary examination.

A case of nothing was learnt and more damningly a clear demonstration that the protests and hue and cry raised against the copy and paste farce failed to register in their consciousness much like water running off the back of a duck ! Responsibilities should be fixed.

Heads should roll.

How can some inept, incompetent officials be allowed to toy around with the future of the land and the candidates who burnt the mid night oil to crack the examination ? Or is the question of occupying the high profile office at the MPSC merely about perks and privileges without any corresponding obligations and duties ? The farce has gone on for too long.

As we had suggested earlier, it is time for the job of recruiting the best brains in the State to be given to the Union Public Service Commission, until things are set right.

Entrusting the task to the Staff Selection Commission is another option that may be studied seriously.

If what the DESAM has said is wrong, then let MPSC clarify it.

But keep in mind a student organisation has nothing to gain by cooking up such a story which eerily sounds like the script of a hotch-potch Bollywood flick.

The only point is, the MPSC is here not to spin yarns or write the script of some masala flicks but to conduct examinations to recruit the best brains in the State.

Period.