On Centre-State conflicts, take the side of the Union in interview, the Governor tells UPSC aspirants

Chennai

Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi on Tuesday told civil services aspirants that in the UPSC interviews on issues of Centre-State conflicts, they should take the side of the Union government.

At an interaction in the Raj Bhavan with aspirants who had cleared the UPSC main examination, he was asked about tackling questions on conflicts between the Union and State governments. Mr. Ravi replied that the candidates should, without doubt, take the side of the Union “since they were getting into the Union civil services”. However, he stressed the need for more polished answers to questions on issues of differences between the Union government and the Supreme Court.

To another question on the issue of learning Hindi, especially in Tamil Nadu, he said an ideal answer in the interview could be that it was always good to learn another language. Moreover, if the aspirants wanted to be more pleasing to the interview board, they could say that a working knowledge of Hindi would always be helpful to those getting into the civil services of the Union government as it is spoken by the single largest number of people in India.

On the issue of entry of women to the Sabarimala shrine, Mr. Ravi, who was formerly an IPS officer of the Kerala cadre, said his broader view was that matters of tradition and culture should not be disturbed as far as possible, if it was not harmful to anyone.

Mr. Ravi said it was important for the candidates not to be opinionated and not to speak like activists. He advised the candidates not to be critical of the Union government’s policies in the interview as they would be considered potential civil servants, who ideally could not be critical of a government decision, once finalised. Acknowledging that policies might have drawbacks, he said the candidates could suggest improvements to better them instead of being critical.