Ace Civil Services: Just Add Quotas and a Dash of Luck!

Sindujaa D N
In the grand circus of indian civil services, it seems we’ve been graced with a new act: *The Karmayogi comedy Hour*! Picture this: a bureaucratic soap opera where UPSC (United Paragon of Self-Congratulation) is the ringmaster, cheerfully applauding its own prowess while a dramatic “Mission Karmayogi” parade marches on.
Enter Puja manorama Dilip Khedkar, our protagonist, who’s taken a dozen attempts at the civil services exam and has wrangled her way into the IAS with a rank so low it could be used as a limbo stick. She’s got the whole package: OBC quotas, disability perks, and a home posting! It’s as if she’s playing a game of bureaucratic Monopoly and landed on “Go Home” with a full set of perks.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get wilder, the UPSC chairperson, Manoj Soni, decides to exit stage left five years early. Was it a dramatic resignation for “personal reasons” or just the classic “Oops, did I say that out loud?” moment? He was a V-C before, so maybe he just got tired of playing musical chairs in the high-stakes game of bureaucratic musical chairs.
*Mission Karmayogi* swoops in with grand promises of training civil servants to be the epitome of efficiency and dedication. But let’s be real, it feels more like a reality show where contestants are trained to nod and say “Yes, Prime Minister!” rather than actually serve the nation.
The whole system seems to be suffering from a case of “Rotten Bureaucracy Syndrome,” with lateral entries of corporate bigwigs who might as well have been auditioning for the role of “Best Supporting Actor” rather than actual civil service roles. It’s a plot twist worthy of any political thriller, with loyalty and mediocrity taking center stage.
Meanwhile, there’s an RSS-backed coaching institute allegedly grooming ‘nationalist’ civil servants. If this were a movie, it’d be called *The Bureaucratic Underbelly*, with characters like Puja Khedkar playing the lead in a story of privilege and loopholes.
And then we have the feedback from former civil servants who visited the LBSNAA (Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration). They report that the ‘Karmayogis’ are trained to be “compliant managers” rather than compassionate civil servants. It’s like being taught to be a robot programmed to say “Yes Sir” rather than a nuanced thinker.
In the end, we’re left with a show where merit seems to be on vacation, and the audience is left wondering if the next act will feature a reality check or just more of the same old script. So here’s hoping for a plot twist that puts merit and integrity back in the spotlight, and the next chapter of New india is less of a comedy and more of a drama with substance!

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