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“Fake News Spread Like A DMK Henchman”, BJP TN Chief Annamalai Calls Out Congress MP Sasikanth’s Misleading Claims On TN’s UPSC Success Rate

March 10, 2025
The Commune

Tamil Nadu BJP President K. Annamalai has strongly countered Congress Tiruvallur MP Sasikanth Senthil, who alleged that the decline in the percentage of Tamil Nadu candidates clearing the UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE) was due to the central government’s policies. Senthil, a former IAS officer, also accused Annamalai of attributing the issue to Tamil students not knowing Hindi.

In his sharp rebuttal, Annamalai dismissed these claims, calling Senthil’s remarks “fake news spread like a DMK henchman for political gain.” He asserted that the real reason behind the declining success rate of Tamil Nadu candidates in UPSC exams is the DMK-Congress alliance’s failure in strengthening government schools, while they prioritized private institutions run by their leaders.

To further disprove Senthil’s allegations, Annamalai shared a video of his speech, clarifying that he never claimed Tamil students’ failure was due to a lack of Hindi proficiency. Instead, he emphasized that the state’s education policies under the ruling alliance were to blame.

Posting his formal response on his official X account, Annamalai stated, “Starting with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, the DMK, and all I.N.D.I. Alliance MPs, have made it a habit to lie. Mr. @s_kanth has falsely claimed that I said Tamil students failed the UPSC exams because they did not know Hindi. It is unfortunate that someone who held a high position in the government has stooped to the point of spreading fake news, like a DMK henchman, for sake of politics. I have attached a video of what I spoke about. It is true that the percentage of rural students from Tamil Nadu passing the UPSC exam has declined. However, the reason for this is that the DMK-Congress alliance has prioritized private schools they run while rendering government schools ineffective—not the central government. Does Mr. @s_kanth, who acknowledges that rural students have failed, also admit that the Tamil Nadu government’s curriculum is inferior to that of private schools? We hope he will, at the very least, support providing quality education to Tamil Nadu’s government school students through the National Education Policy.”

In the video attached Annamalai explained, “They look at only GER. GER is the only data the Tamil Nadu government brings to say, ‘Look at the Gross Enrolment Ratio we have crossed 50%’, I’m sure you know it has also dropped to 49%. Tamil Nadu’s Gross Enrolment Ratio is not 51% but dropping to 49%. If we look out all the indicators… In civil services, how many of us passed Civil Services? last year Tamil Nadu was 45 ten years back we were at 120. How many of us get into medical colleges, IIT? How many of us are getting into it? Tamil Nadu has become one of the state which has got least number of entrance into all these higher education institution. Why is not Tamil Nadu’s education minister looking at that? Education is not about number schools or number of colleges also about quality. Tamil Nadu scores because access to education because of more schools not by them but Kamaraj built 18,000 schools. Because of the access to education is good we are topping many parameters and when it comes to quality why Tamil Nadu is in the bottom of all tables?” 

Misleading Claims By Congress MP Sasikanth Senthil

This rebuttal from Annamalai is in response to Congress Tiruvallur MP Sasikanth Senthil, who, through his official account, falsely claimed that Annamalai attributed the decline in Tamil Nadu students’ UPSC success rate to their lack of Hindi proficiency.

In a video statement, Senthil acknowledged the drop in the number of successful candidates from Tamil Nadu, providing statistics to illustrate the trend. He stated that in 2013-14, out of 1,126 candidates who cleared the UPSC exam nationwide, 119 were from Tamil Nadu, making up 10.6%. However, by 2020, only 45 Tamil Nadu candidates qualified out of 781 nationwide, reducing the share to 5%. In the latest examination, out of 1,016 successful candidates across India, only 45 were from Tamil Nadu, further declining to 4.4%.

Despite these figures, Senthil conveniently blamed the central government for changes in the UPSC exam pattern, disregarding the fact that UPSC, as a constitutional body, independently determines its examination structure. He further propagated the false claim indirectly stating that these changes were introduced by the BJP after 2014, pushing a misleading narrative that held the central government responsible for the declining success rate of Tamil Nadu students.

However, the real fact is that the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT), which replaced the Optional paper in the Preliminary Exam, was introduced in 2011 under the Congress-led government—not after 2014. The CSAT brought a shift in focus toward reasoning and problem-solving, and it was implemented during the UPA era, not under the BJP government.

In his video, former IAS officer and current Congress MP Sasikanth Senthil conveniently pushed the DMK’s agenda in Tamil Nadu, adopting a tone of sorrow while blaming competitive exams such as NEET, CUET, and others. He misrepresented these exams as being designed for the wealthy, completely ignoring their actual intent of ensuring a transparent and merit-based selection process.

Congress Tiruvallur MP Sasikanth Senthil via his official X account stated that, “Tamil Nadu BJP state president Mr. @annamalai_k has said that the reason why Tamil students do not succeed in the UPSC exam is because they do not know Hindi. In fact, the BJP came to power and changed the curriculum and education system, reducing the pass rate from 10.6 percent before 2014 to 4.4 percent today, which has made it impossible for rural students to even think about the UPSC exam.”

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