Chanakya mandal’s feat

MUMBAI, August 15: Today's youth are cynical, uncaring and apathetic. This axiom came in for a bit of knocking on the first foundation day ...

MUMBAI, August 15: Today’s youth are cynical, uncaring and apathetic. This axiom came in for a bit of knocking on the first foundation day of the Chanakya Mandal, an organisation launched last year by former IAS officer Avinash Dharmadhikari. On this occasion, around 150 youth took a pledge to become “professionals with a national character” at the Swatantryaveer Savarkar Smarak at Dadar on August 14.

The mandal is named after the man who never took a single IAS exam, and yet was of India’s first bureaucrats: Chanakya Vishnugupta (fourth century B C), author of the Kautilya Arthshastra.

“The pledge is our way of celebrating the fiftieth year of Independence. We want to create a youth force that is committed to certain human values while pursuing individual career goals.

Nowadays, career development and idealism are considered contrary to each other,” said Dharmadhikari, who had resigned from the IAS in March 1996, in his address. The founder of the Deendayal Research Institute, Nanaji Deshmukh, and the Special Director General of Police (Anti-corruption Bureau), Arvind Inamdar, were guest speakers.

The mandal is run by a 30-strong core group with five centres all over Maharashtra, which offer a foundation course on basic skills and personality development and coaching for competitive exams. The organisation also plans to spread to the interiors of Maharashtra.

Each centre has about 50 students, with the exception of Pune, which has enrolled 222 students. The foundation course includes 18 subjects including creativity development, problem solving techniques, communication techniques, art of self-study, yoga, leadership skills and and mastery over English. Anyone who has passed standard ten is eligible for the course, with no upper age limit. The passing percentage is 50.

It also offers printed notes and a postal course for MPSC and UPSC students.The fee structure of the courses varies as per duration. While the annual fees for the foundation course are Rs 3,000, coaching fees for preliminary exams of MPSC and UPSC are Rs 7,000, while that for the MPSC and UPSC main exams are Rs 4,000 and 5,000 respectively.

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However, a student can pay Rs 6,000 if he enrols for coaching classes for both the final exams. The fees are also payable in instalments. The mandal will return 50 per cent of the fees of those students who fail in the finals of either their MPSC or UPSC exams.