Chennai, Jan 7 (IANS): Su Venkatesan, DMK leader and Lok Sabha MP from Madurai, has written to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to take action against the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) officials, who had allegedly discriminated against non-Hindi medium candidates who had appeared for the CA inter-examinations on January 4 and 5.
The DMK leader in the letter has said 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, added that the non-Hindi medium students had to type the answers as mentioned in point number 13 as per the official instructions for the examination.
He said that this was more time-consuming for English medium students, adding 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 and non-Hindi medium students have the option to write and type the answers and that there was no discrimination. But his reply was far from truth 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 added that when students expressed their anguish over social media, the ICAI threatened them with punitive action, including debarring them from writing the CA examination for five years for bringing the matter in the public domain.
Su Venkatesan said, "Even after an MP had taken up the matter, if there is no solution then what is the option for the students other than to take it up on social media platforms. Instead of taking up the issue of the students, ICAI has chosen to threaten them with punitive measures."
He said that the writing option must be made available for students who were taking the examination in the non-Hindi medium and requested for action against those officials who had not carried out the clarification of the ICAI President.
He urged the ICAI to withdraw the circular threatening the students with punitive action for voicing their grievances on social media platforms and demanded an inquiry into all issues raised by the students related to the ICAI inter-examination.