Over the past few weeks, the country has witnessed an uproar over several instances of paper leaks, cancelled exams and forged results in major exams conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) meant for admission in higher educational institutions and recruitment in government jobs. In May this year, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test meant for MBBS, Dental and Ayush courses in medical colleges of the country was conducted. Just after the exam, reports of paper leaks started coming out. As the result of the NEET 2024 came out in June, the reality of paper leak and corruption became clear as water. The scam impacted 24 lakhs of NEET aspirants who toiled hard to appear for the exam. Few days later, on June 19, the Ministry of Education cancelled the National Eligibility Test 2024 (meant for recruitment as lecturer and admission in PhD) after reports of paper leak came to light. The CSIR-UGC NET was postponed. Admission test conducted for Under Graduate admission in Central Universities called the CUET UG is also mired in questions about discrepancies in answer sheets. In a nutshell, the future of millions of students aspiring for higher education and dignified employment opportunities have been thrown into the darkness of uncertainty and betrayal. The common thread to all these fraudulent exams is the National Testing Agency. According to media reports, since 2019, there have been paper leaks in at least 65 exams conducted by the NTA out of which 25 were admission exams and 40 were recruitment exams including pan India tests like CTET 2023, JEE Mains 2021 and UGC NET 2022.
The NTA is a brainchild of the Narendra Modi government. It was brought in 2017 as the nodal agency to conduct major recruitment examinations and admission tests in the country. The NEET was brought in one year before, in 2016, as a singular exam replacing several state level examinations. Subsequently, the Central University Entrance Test (CUET) was enforced replacing university level admission procedures. Through all these measures, the Narendra Modi government has been imposing its One Nation One Examination/One Nation One Agency policy on the students. All that the policy has done is to push out students from rural and non-english medium backgrounds who are mostly from schools run by state educational boards. The power hungry centralisation spree of the Modi government has been enforced at the cost of a secured future of India’s youth.
The NEET Scam also exposed the BJP-RSS connection of the paper leak mafia being maintained by the NTA. The Jay Jalaram International School in Godhara, Gujarat that has come out as one of the epicentres of the NEET scam has close connections with BJP-RSS. This institute not only pays handsome donations to the BJP, but also has deep connections with the party. It is not surprising that despite several reports of rigging in exam and paper leak as well as confessions by perpetrators, neither the Ministry of Education nor the NTA has called for a re-examination of NEET. The present chairperson of NTA, Pradeep Joshi who was recruited as chairperson of MPPSC and later the Chhattisgarh PSC has deep rooted RSS-BJP connection. RTI revelations have exposed that his recruitment as MPPSC chairperson in 2016 was done following recommendation by an RSS functionary. The recommendation mentioned Pradeep Joshi’s track record of being an ABVP chief. It is thus not surprising that despite a nation wide uproar against paper leaks and scams in NTA exams, Mr Pradeep Joshi has not been touched yet.
The series of paper leaks under the centralised functionary of exam conduction in BJP Raj is a reminder of the massive Vyapam scam that ran for years affecting millions of youth in Madhya Pradesh who took part in the exam for professional courses. From paper leak to rigging in results- the Vyapam scam brought out how the corrupt education mafia was allowed to function under the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh. Since the Modi government has come to power in 2014, paper leaks and corruption have become the new normal. Massive protest against paper leak in Staff Selection Commission in 2017 first exposed the series of scams that was to follow since then. Scams in CBSE Class X & XII exam in 2018, JEE Main 2020 (Assam Topper Scam) to JEE Main 2021- the NTA’s reality was only waiting to be exposed.
We must note that while the NTA’s nodal authority is the Ministry of Education, the NTA is not a government agency. It is registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860 as an “autonomous and self -sustained” organization. While Dharmendra Pradhan lies of NTA being a government agency, even a Memorandum of Association cannot be found between the NTA and his ministry.
While high fees and lack of any financial assistance are major causes of concern, it is the model of ‘profiteering through centralization’ that has fostered money making rackets, both legal and illegal. While at the top, centralized exams mean a bigger and highly lucrative market pool for the commercial coaching business, at the bottom the NTA, with its modus operandi of ‘outsource-everything’ provides enough gaps for the paper leak mafia to steal, copy and sell papers at the speed of light. In the sting operation held by India Today, Bijender Singh, a close aide of the NDA MLA from UP and paper mafia chieftain Bedi Singh, openly tells how the paper leak mafia has connections in the logistic companies, the printing companies, the transit companies and even the OMR checking companies that NTA outsources its work to. Bedi Singh is not alone. An array of BJP and NDA have been found in the fray of the paper leak mafia. From Ranjit Don of the LJP in Bihar to Arif Vohra and Jay Jalaram of the BJP in Godhra, BJP’s local cadres have found a lucrative opportunity of money making that stems from structural loopholes and an impunity that comes with the association to the BJP.
One of the key agenda of the BJP regime at centre has been to install RSS-BJP functionaries in important positions in all academic institutions in the country. From appointing RSS functionaries as Vice-Chancellors of universities and important positions in recruitment agencies, the BJP has done all to destroy every shred of transparency and sanctity of academic institutions in the country. On the one hand, rational, fact based and historically true curriculums for schools and universities are being replaced with courses representing regressive ideology of the BJP, on the other, corrupt paper leak mafias close to the party have been given free hand to operate.
The scams in exams conducted by the NTA is thus just one instance of the Modi Government’s modus operandi. The student-youth movement of the country is demanding scrapping of the NTA altogether and reinstating the autonomy of state governments and universities in conducting exams. This will merely be one step in ensuring that the future of millions of Indian youth are not held ransom at the mercy of the paper leak mafia.
