The Election Commission’s diktat is that those who contest the Lok Sabha election and those who campaign for them should not utter the word Sabarimala or Ayyappa. Those who have violated this are now busy writing down the explanation for their action.
It was in between this that Sabarimala made an unexpected entry into the PSC questions for the exam held for selecting the Psychiatry doctors in Medical Education department.
One of the questions was to name the first young woman who entered the Sabarimala temple post the Supreme Court order that allows women of all ages to enter Sabarimala.
Though it was a question that could have been dismissed as a blunder, it got the undeserved attention in the backdrop of the Sabarimala issue.
It is no surprise to question the logic behind such blunder questions. The only doubt is: are such kind of questions eligible to be asked in exams like PSC exams? For PSC, such goof-ups are nothing new.
However, the decision taken by the PSC meeting the other day to withdraw the question is a right decision. It was also rightly decided to remove the careless and derelict staff who prepared that question. Officers concerned have been asked to initiate disciplinary action against him, as well. Nevertheless, it would have been better if the PSC had disclosed the name of that ‘wise’ person.

The PSC should however own up the responsibility for this blunder. The Sabarimala question underscores the fact that more care should be given while selecting members for the question panel.

Every year lakhs of candidates take PSC exams. Many times, question papers have ended up in controversies. There have also been complaints about question makers copying exactly questions from guides brought out by private publishers.

For any blunder committed by questioners, the ones who are answerable are PSC authorities.
Therefore the PSC will have to check twice to make sure that people in the question panel are ones who deserve to be in that place.

If the credibility and authenticity of the PSC is lost, it will bring ill-reputation to it. Complaints regarding the questions have been on the rise, of late and hence the PSC will have to think about it seriously.