Chennai, Jan 7 (BPNS)
DMK leader and Member of Parliament from Madurai Lok Sabha constituency, Su Venkatesan has written a letter to the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to take action against Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) officials who had discriminated against non- Hindi medium candidates who had taken up the CA inter examinations on January 4 and 5.
Su Venkatesan in the letter pointed out that Hindi medium aspirants had the option to answer questions in sections B, C, and D in the physical answer sheet by writing. He however said that the non-Hindi medium students had to type the answers as mentioned in point no 13 in the official instructions for the examination. The Member of Parliament said that this was more time-consuming for English medium students. He said that he had taken up the matter with the ICAI officials but to no avail.
Venkatesan said, “ The ICAI president Raju Iyer had replied to me that both the Hindi medium and non-Hindi medium students have the option to write and type the answers and that there was no discrimination. But his reply was not true and not in consonance with the reality and physical answer sheets were not provided to non-Hindi medium students in examinations held on January 4 and 5.”
He said that when students expressed their anguish over social media, the ICAI threatened them with punitive actions including debarring them from writing the CA examinations for five years for bringing out the matter in public domain.
Su Venkatesan said, “ Even after a Member of Parliament had taken up a matter if there is no solution then what is the option for the students other than to take this up in social media platforms. Instead of taking up the issue of the students, ICAI has chosen to threaten them with punitive measures.”
The Member of Parliament in the letter to Nirmala Sitharaman said that writing options must be made available for students who were taking the examination from the non-Hindi medium and requested to take action against those officials who had not carried out the clarification of the ICAI president. He called upon the ICAI to withdraw the circular threatening the students with punitive action for airing their grievances on social media platforms and demanded an inquiry into all issues raised by the students in relation to the inter examination of the ICAI.
