Deepak
was a normal guy -- a part of the larger block that experts like to
refer to as “youth of India”. He had a normal life, a middle class
family. There is nothing about Deepak’s past life that shall stand out
in a crowd of thousands.
But, that Deepak that you are reading about is only the Deepak of pre-2013.
Post-2013,
Deepak finds himself in the streets of Delhi, sitting right outside
Rahul Gandhi’s residence, leading a sit-in protest demanding justice for
his cause.
“I
never wanted to be a leader. People come up to me and praise my
leadership qualities. But, I never wanted to be a leader,” says Deepak.
Deepak
“I wanted a normal life.”
But, there is nothing about his life post-2013 that can be called “normal”.
He, along with a few others, wrote to the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, asking for “mercy killing” as his “life was worse than death”.
“Is this the future of young India?”, the letter asks.
Reflecting
on the move, he says, “I felt very hopeless, when even the IBPS job
opportunity was seemingly lost for no fault of mine.”
Deepak
is one of the millions who do not have a vocational education-degree
that costs lakhs of rupees, and one that guarantees one a job.
Deepak's letter to the President
He had been hunting for a job since 2009.
“I managed to crack written tests of 3-4 central government jobs. But, I never managed to clear an interview,” he says.
He came closest to getting a job in 2013, when he cleared all the rounds of the IBPS-PO-II interview.
IBPS
(Indian Banking Personnel Selection) is the autonomous body that
conducts examinations for selecting employees for 20 public sector and
regional rural banks.
He was one of the 47, 000 people who had cleared the interview.
Of them, 19, 000 were told that they will be given jobs in the next round of recruitment.
“IBPS gave us a deadline of 31st March, by which we would be recruited.”
But,
soon they felt like IBPS was “cheating them” by conducting fresh
examinations for filling vacancies of the last financial year.
Candidates like Deepak smell a “scam” in this.
Many like Deepak smell a "scam" in the IBPS' move.
New
recruitment means fresh collection of revenue in terms of fee
collection etc. What forced IBPS to take this decision needs to be
probed.
Soon, the group started organising protests all over the country to get IBPS to change its move. They went to various public representatives in each state.
“The
response was mixed. They would promise that they would do something,
and we would feel assured. But, later on, nothing of that ever
happened.”
This
week, they sat on dharna in front of Rahul Gandhi’s residence. Yet,
they did not manage to meet the youth leader, who is set to be
Congress’s next PM-candidate.
Pictures of a protest by the group
Facebook/Shriramchandra Chauhan
But, some movement did, however, happen.
The files moved. Higher officials gave them a patient hearing, and agreed that “something fishy was going on at IBPS”.
Time is running out fast for Deepak and many others like him. Their candidature ends on March 31st.
Officials
they meet on a daily basis tell them that they will get their “right”.
Perhaps, this gives Deepak and others some hope.
Meanwhile, the President has not got back to Deepak yet. His plea for a “mercy killing” rests with the President of India.
The move, that some might dub as “exaggerated”, explains the plight that millions of jobless youth are facing. Hunting for a job for 4 years can get tiring.
India has been failing its youth consistently. Will they see some hope post 2014? Deepak awaits an answer.
Source : https://www.saddahaq.com/politics/justiceforibpscandidates/the-man-who-wrote-to-the--indian-president-pleading-for-death
