Thousands of enthusiastic youths throng the venue at Dehradun to hear their charming leader Rahul Gandhi

Points out, not a single person punished so far for paper leaks

Raps government’s callous indifference towards victims of paper leaks

Identifies four injustices with students

Says, four out of five job options closed for country’s youth

NAVIN GAUTAM, Sr. Journalist

DEHRADUN, July 17: Thousands of students today converged to attend the second convention of the ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’ (Echo of the Students) addressed by the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi here today. He called for a national consensus against paper leaks, questioned the government’s failure to punish those responsible despite 152 reported leak cases over the last decade and proposed technological safeguards to protect examinations.

Rahul Gandhi identified several problems being faced by the students and the youth and also suggested technology driven measures to prevent the recurring paper leaks in the country. He also noted that not a single person has been convicted or punished in the country despite 152 cases of paper leaks that have taken place in the last ten years.

Rahul also called on stage Rajesh Kumar, the father of Riya Kumari who committed suicide after the cancellation of the NEET exam due to the paper leak. Sharing his grief, he expressed shock that the government had completely remained indifferent towards the victim’s family and had not even expressed condolence or apology.

Speaking on the occasion, Rajesh Kumar urged Gandhi to highlight the plight of the victims of the paper leaks in the Parliament. He regretted that there was not a single word of sympathy, apology or condolence from the government over the suicide of his daughter.

Gandhi said that on an average, every student spends Rs nine lakhs during a period of five years for coaching to get a government job. This, he said, was because all other options had been closed. He identified five sectors where the youth could get jobs earlier and said that only the government sector had been left now. He said, since manufacturing was closed and entire goods were imported from China, there were no jobs in this sector. He said the second option of entrepreneurship was also closed for the youth as the banks were assisting only a select few industrial groups whose names were known to everyone.

The senior Congress leader said, the corporate jobs were finished due to the impact of Artificial Intelligence. He said another sector was the PSUs which also provided the jobs, but these had been privatised by the government. He said, only the government sector was left where the chances of anyone getting a job were quite low. Providing statistics, he said, out of 150 applicants only one can get the job.

Gandhi maintained that there were only two ways to succeed in the competitive exams. One was that of honesty and hard work that was adopted by 99 percent youth. The other one was through the paper leaks where people buy papers before the exams. He also mentioned the rate card for various leaked question papers, saying that while the NEET paper cost Rs 40 lakh, the IIT-JEE paper was available for Rs 15 lakh. He said there were separate rate cards for not needed state recruitment exams.

Gandhi identified four types of injustices youth of the country were subjected to. These include the injustice of the exorbitant cost of private coaching which on an average costs Rs nine lakhs for each candidate. The second injustice, he added, was that out of five options for jobs, four were closed. Third injustice he said was the very low strike rate of success in getting a government job, pointing out that against 150 applicants, only one can get the job. Fourth injustice, he said, was the worst and that was the paper leak where deserving students are denied success and opportunity despite putting in a lot of hard work.

The Leader of Opposition said that about 7.5 crore students were affected by the paper leaks during the last ten years. He said, 152 papers were leaked during this period. He said, this was just the tip of the iceberg as nobody knows how many papers were actually getting leaked. This, he noted, was because there was no deterrence as not a single person had been punished for paper leaks so far. He said, the entire system and its structure was involved, from the coaching centres right up to the people sitting in the ministry.

Suggesting solutions against the paper leak, Rahul Gandhi said, Indian examination system was that of the 19th century while we need a system for the 21st century. He said, today’s system is examiner/government centric, while we need a student-centric examination system which should be modern and have the option of flexible dates. He suggested that randomisation of question papers can be one of the solutions. He said, there can be different sets of papers for students in a single examination hall. He also asserted that education institutions must be independent of the government influence and the Vice Chancellors must not belong to any political party or organisation. He said, the head of the National Testing Agency must not belong to any particular organisation. Besides, he emphasised that holding exams is the job of the government and not the private agencies, which are driven by profit motives.