Applicants were asked which was not a bad omen – ‘meeting a black Brahmin’, ‘an empty pitcher’, ‘a casket full of fuel’, or ‘sight of the Brahmin girl’.
New Delhi: The Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana has once again courted controversy, by asking a question loaded with casteist and sexist overtones in a 10 April examination to select junior engineers (civil) for the Haryana Urban Development Authority.
The multiple choice question asked applicants to choose ‘which is not a bad omen in Haryana’ – the options were ‘meeting a black Brahmin’, ‘an empty pitcher’, ‘a casket full of fuel’, and ‘sight of the Brahmin girl’ (sic). The ‘correct’ answer was the final option.
There is considerable disquiet among the Brahmin community in Haryana over the question. A number of Brahmin organisations have demanded an unconditional apology from the government over the “disgrace” done to the community by issuing such a question. A demonstration was also held in Jind, where people demanded strict action against the guilty.
The Haryana Staff Selection Commission has issued a notice of regret regarding the question, and said appropriate action will be taken against the chief examiner. “The commission has decided to withdraw this question and feel sorry and regret (sic) if it has hurt the sentiments of anyone but it was inadvertent and unintentional,” the commission said.
Political uproar
Randeep Singh Surejwala, the head of the Congress’s media cell and an MLA from Kaithal, tweeted about the incident, calling the question ‘blind orthodoxy and rank sexism’, which is the ‘DNA of the BJP’. He stated that the question is demeaning to women and the Brahmin community at large, attacking the Khattar government.
Obscurantism, blind Orthodoxy & rank Sexism has become the DNA of BJP.
Latest pearl of wisdom of Khattar Govt & SSC in shape of question asked in J.E exam is derogatory & demeaning to the hilt, not only to Brahmin community but to women per se. Reflects the BJP mindset. pic.twitter.com/lRVBhtGVTf
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) May 5, 2018
In a press release, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda also severely condemned the question, and stated that questions in state examinations should be impartial. “Questions should keep from casting aspersions on any community,” he said.
Repeat offender
Khattar’s Haryana government is a repeat offender when it comes to reinforcing discriminatory stereotypes.
Also in April this year, a questionnaire for senior secondary students had asked whether their parents indulged in ‘unclean occupations’.
The government had then been criticised for promoting untouchability in the state with such questions.
The questionnaire had also asked students if they were ‘mentally challenged’ or had ‘genetic disorders’.