CPM MP Venkatesan protests the conduct of Railway exam without Tamil paper

CHENNAI: CPM’s Madurai MP Su Venkatesan has urged the Union government to cancel the departmental promotion examination for junior engineers in the Southern Railway’s Signal and Telecommunications wing, alleging that the test was conducted in violation of prescribed procedures by excluding Tamil.

In a letter to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, Venkatesan pointed out that the Computer-Based Test held on August 10 was offered only in English and Hindi, despite the rules mandating trilingual question papers, including the regional language. He said the omission amounted to a denial of language rights and called for a re-examination with Tamil as one of the mediums.

Quoting the notification for departmental promotion quota examinations (No. 16/2025, item 7(iii)), he said the question paper must be set in three languages, including the language of the State concerned. “Conducting the test without a Tamil version is a contravention of procedure and a direct assault on the rights of candidates,” he wrote in his representation.

Taking to social media platform X, the CPM MP wrote, “Elimination of Tamil and imposition of Hindi are the twin tracks on which the Railways runs. Cancel the exam and conduct a re-exam with a Tamil question paper.”