NSUI Rajasthan chief Ranju Ramawat speaks to youths in Jaipur. (Surendra Jain Paras)

Jaipur, June 9: If you want to join Rahul Gandhi’s NSUI, you had better know the Lyngdoh Committee from the Raghavan Committee.

Starting yesterday, the Rajasthan unit of the National Students’ Union of India — the Congress’s student wing — is holding written tests to admit new members.

The five-question test held in Jaipur today quizzed aspirants on the Lyngdoh report on student union elections and the Raghavan report on curbing ragging.

NSUI state chief Ranju Ramawat said 400-odd aspirants had taken the test in Jaipur over the past two days.

After the written test, the candidates are being interviewed by a three-member screening committee, which includes Ramawat and two professors.

Gautam Meena, a second-year law student who took the test and the interview, said: “Neither was the paper easy nor difficult.”

Apart from Jaipur, Rajasthan has six divisional headquarters — Ajmer, Bharatpur, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Kota and Udaipur — where the tests will be held till June-end. Each will have a separate screening committee and the questions will also vary. A seven-member screening committee, including a national NSUI leader, will make the final selection.

Names of successful candidates will be announced by early next month.

They will then be called for a training workshop and tested on whether they can complete an assignment — such as enrolling a certain number of students for a social awareness programme like saving the girl child — on time. If found not up to the mark, they can be asked to leave, Ramawat said.

In the interview, candidates are being told to make a speech and asked how they would connect with people. They are being judged on body language and oratory and on how active they are on campus.

Meena had an easy question — “Who is your favourite leader and why?” No prizes for guessing the answer — Rahul Gandhi.

The state NSUI chief said: “We are just following Rahul Gandhi’s directive to bring forth quality leaders from the grassroots rather than those who are thrust upon us, mainly due to their family connections or regionalism and casteism. We want to encourage fresh talent irrespective of their political background. Rahulji has been stressing on quality rather than quantity, he wants young leaders with good, vibrant ideas on how to run the country to come up and lead from the front.”

Rahul, the Congress general secretary in charge of the NSUI and the Youth Congress, has repeatedly stressed the need to involve the youth in politics. “I have a job to do, it is to help the youth join politics and change the way politics works in this country,” he has said more than once.

The Gandhi scion has also promised to induct into the Congress youths who have no family background in politics. Although Election 2009 did see a large number of young MPs take oath, most have a famous surname.

If successful in Rajasthan, the tests will be replicated across the country.