CBSE paper leak: Modi ji, please tell ‘exam warriors’ how to fight racketeers?

The silence on the part of PM Narendra Modi over the CBSE paper leak has shocked everyone.

New Delhi, March 30: Days ahead of the board examinations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made all attempts to reach out to the young students by doling out some very "pleasing" advice to the community. The PM wrote and released a book, with a "funny" title--Exam Warriors--a guidebook to fight stress and depression during the board exams.

The book also gave several tips to youngsters to help them prepare well for the crucial exams. It was not just the book; Modi also addressed an "over-hyped" and "much-televised" interaction with the students appearing for the board exams, again oddly titled--"Pariksha par Charcha (Discussion on exams)" (the PM's team did a lazy job by borrowing Chai Pe Charcha title to fit into a students' event).

Anyway, the problem here is not about how much money has been spent to host the event which is clearly to woo young voters (most of the class 12 students will be voting in the next Lok Sabha elections in 2019) or the title of such an unnecessary event, where the PM said what everyone knew, but why Modi who called himself a "friend" of the students is once again maintaining silence after the CBSE board exam papers got leaked recently.

The worst part is that the now infamous board, in spite of knowing beforehand that the papers were leaked did not care to postpone the exams. The exams were held as per the schedule and students wrote their papers. However, later the board woke up from its slumber and asked the students of class 10 and class 12 to rewrite their Mathematics and Economics papers respectively.

What do you call this? Cheating, backstabbing, playing with the lives of youngsters who are our future or simply callous attitude on the part of the authorities? Whatever it is, but the racketeers who got hold of the exam papers sold them and made money.

The leak of CBSE papers is another scam that has hit the students' community badly. Because of the paper leak, the career of around 20 lakh class 10 and class 12 students studying in schools across the country and abroad are at stake. Similarly, papers of the SSC exams were also leaked recently.

Like the CBSE students, the job aspirants who wrote the SSC exams were left in a lurch. All of them protested, shouted slogans on the streets of Delhi, but the government did not move an inch to address their grievances.

After the shameful episode of CBSE paper leak, it took board chairperson, Anita Karwal, almost two days to break her silence on Thursday. She told reporters that the board has taken a decision in favour of the students. She added that the dates of the re-examination of the class 12 Economics and class 10 Mathematics papers would be announced soon.

"We have taken decision in favour of the students. We are working for their good," she told reporters. However, she did not speak on why she did not scrap the class 10 Mathematics paper despite receiving a copy of the leaked paper a day before the exam.

Students and parents are mighty upset as the whole "exam scam" has shocked them to the core forcing them to question the sanctity of the exams. Will re-examination assure fair play? What is the guarantee that the papers won't be leaked in the future? Is it time to change the education system of the country? Why did the CBSE chairperson not resign yet? Why Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar did not resign yet? Who will take moral responsibility for the fiasco?

Has Modi, the "friend", turned into a "foe" of students? These questions and many more are haunting the aggrieved students and parents, these days.

OneIndia News