Question paper leaks acts of evil forces; stones can’t be thrown from glasshouses

HYDERABAD: Trials and tribulations in the conduct of examinations on a large-scale are all too common across the country. Efforts have always been made by successive governments to eliminate leakage or pilferage in the process. There have been umpteen occasions when question papers were leaked, answer scripts were tampered with, mark lists tinkered, or interview results manipulated.

Question paper leaks have been scandalous always. They never happened with the involvement of just one or two. They have always been on a mass scale. And, no State or even the Union Government bodies were an exclusion in falling prey to the dubious designs of evil forces.

One person or one system or the political party in power could not be blamed for such incidents. In 1996, when EAMCET question papers were leaked, and several heads rolled. Finally, a municipal councillor in Chilakaluripet Municipality of Guntur district, Ramabrahmam, had been booked for illegally organising the printing contract to one Vimal Kundu and Rishikesh Kundu of Bhubaneshwar, from where the papers were leaked. Thousands of careers of students came under cloud.

When it comes to entrance examinations for jobs, the cases of leakage of question papers were dime a dozen.

With a view to fulfilling the long-pending demand of aspiring candidates, Telangana State Government had announced close to one lakh jobs and tasked the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) with handling the recruitment process.

When everything seemed fine, smoke of question paper leakage of Assistant Executive Engineers billowed from the TSPSC and it engulfed the whole process, forcing the Commission to scrap even the Group -1 examination conducted on October 16, 2023.

Minister K T Rama Rao, while attempting to bolster the sagging morale of the aspirants, urged the job-seekers not to lose heart and assured them that the government would take all necessary steps to ensure that their interests were protected by all means.

In the same breath, KTR said that there were more than 100 occasions when question papers were leaked in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states. In fact, he said, as many as 13 times, question paper leakage happened in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat. KTR sought to know if the BJP ranks had the gall to demand Modi’s resignation.

Take a look at the multiple occasions when question papers were leaked in the BJP-ruled States between 2014 and 23. While Gujarat topped the list with 13 times, Bihar closely followed it with 12. Assam, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana accounted for leakages on eight times each, those with a tally of seven were Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh.

The other States were: Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Maniput – five times each; Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Mizoram, Sikkim and Puducherry – four times each.

Here is a sneak peak of list of examination papers leaked in different States:

1. Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd – 2022

2. Karnataka State Eligibility Test (KSET) – 2019

3. Karnataka Public Service Commission’s First Division Assistants – 2021

4. UP Police Recruitment Exam – 2017

5. UP Teachers Eligibility Test – 2021

6. UP Police Recruitment – 2018

7. Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission examination – 2018

8. National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in Varanasi – 2016

9. Assam TET – 2019

10. Assam Police Sub-Inspector Exam – 2020

11. Assam Irrigation Dept Exam – 2020

12. Assam Public Service Commission exam – 2020

13. Assam TET – 2021

14. Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board – 2020 & 2021

15. FCI exam in Madhya Pradesh – 2018

16. MP Police Recruitment E – 2019

17. MP Nurse Recruitment Exam – 2023

18. MP Vyapam Scam – 2018

19. Gujarat subordinate services exam – 2021

20. Gujarat Public Service Exams – 2014

21. Talati exam – 2015, and 2016

22. Multiple recruitment tests in Gujarat – 2018

23. Non-secretariat clerical exam – 2019

24. Gujarat Electricity employees recruitment – 2021

25. Forest guard exam in Gujarat – 2022

While this is just a sample list of question papers leaked in the last nine years, there are many other BJP-ruled States where the dubious practice affected the lives of many job-aspirants.

The question of why BJP-ruled States alone was listed has a reason.

Telangana BJP unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who had the audacity to call upon students and job-aspirants to set asides studies and preparation for exams and work for the victory of the BJP in Telangana in this election year, began blaming the State Government for the paper leakage.

Bandi Sanjay also launched a padayatra and organised a sit-in leading to his arrest in Hyderabad on Friday.

The BJP should know that the process of examinations could be derailed only with nefarious intentions by evil forces and political parties in power could not be held responsible for such incidents. One should not throw stones from the glass houses.