GUWAHATI, Oct 6 - Candidates who appeared in the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC)-conducted Combined Competitive Examination (CCE)-2016 preliminary examination have alleged glaring anomalies in the answer keys (General Studies and Indian History), casting serious doubts on the manner in which the exam was conducted.
The preliminary exam was held on July 2 and the first answer key (General Studies) was published on July 20, followed by the first answer key (Indian History) on July 31. The final answer keys (General Studies and Indian History) were published on October 4.
In the answer key to the Indian History paper, the founder of Pataliputra city was mentioned as Ajatsatru, whereas the answer should be Udayan as per authentic works on the subject.
�Both Lucent�s General Knowledge (page no. 15) by Dr Binay Karna, Sanjiv Kumar and Manwendra Mukul, and India�s Ancient Past (page no. 149) by RS Sharma mention Udayan as the Pataliputra founder,� some aggrieved candidates told The Assam Tribune, citing the texts.
Similarly, the APSC answer key mentions Dharmapala as the greatest king of the Pala dynasty of Kamrupa (the answer should be Ratnapala as per A Comprehensive History of Assam by SL Baruah), and again, it mentions Persia as the country from where the Mansabdari System was borrowed (the correct answer is Mongolia as per History of Medieval India by Satish Chandra).
There were cases in which questions were wrongly put: for example, who declared Bengal an independent State in 1771? Whereas the correct year is 1661 as per Spectrum�s A Brief History of Modern India by Rajiv Ahir (page numbers 85 and 86). In another question, it mentions the Indian National Army of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose as the Indian National Association.
In yet another mistake, the answer key showed Motilal Nehru to have led the conflict of the peasants of Champaran in Bihar in 1917-1918, which was actually led by Mahatma Gandhi. This year the country is celebrating the movement�s centenary.
The General Studies paper, too, has several silly mistakes. In one question, it asks about �conventional rainfall� instead of �convectional rainfall.� In another goof-up, the answer options to the question �The first Census was conducted at the time of�� do not contain the name of Lord Mayo, which is the correct answer.
�It is apparent that little thought has been put into the setting of the questions as well as the answers. In fact, if one browses the Internet, it becomes clear that many questions on Indian history were directly and even serially copied from gkduniya.com. It is shocking that the questions for the APSC exam were set in such a casual and irresponsible manner,� an aggrieved candidate said.
When the APSC office was contacted, a senior official, requesting anonymity, said there could have been �a few� inadvertent mistakes, but those had been rectified in the final answer key.
�We take feedback before publishing the final answer key and refer it to the expert panel. In this case, the expert panel rectified one or two answers while a few others, which were challenged, have been left intact. We have little to do in this regard, and we go by the expert panel�s decision,� the official added.
The aggrieved candidates also met the APSC authorities, but failed to evoke any convincing explanation on the fiasco. �The Controller of Examinations only said he was a mere facilitator and that a panel of experts was responsible for the questions and the answers. It seems the experts did not do much study and simply lifted the questions along with wrong answers from an unauthenticated website despite there being no dearth of credible volumes by acclaimed writers on the subjects,� they said.
The revelations raise legitimate questions on the intent and seriousness of the APSC in conducting the civil services exam.