TSR Subramanian By

A couple of months ago, a tragic image appeared in TV channels and newspapers, depicting mass copying in the course of school final examinations in many centres of Bihar. It was depressingly amusing to see a ‘rock climbing’ scene in many examination centres, where at great risk to life and limb, relatives, friends and well-wishers of the examinees would scale the building’s walls, perched precariously, to hand over ‘slips’ to their friends or wards. Apparently, Bihar has the habit of regularly breaking its own records. Recently, a TV channel showed the scene from an examination hall for BA examination in one of the centres in Samastipur. It was a mind-boggling spectacle. Over 3,000 examinees crammed into space meant for 800, many of them squatting on the floor while writing their answers—the scene like a packed railway platform with every train being late. The TV picture showed open and brazen copying. Every student had reference books or notes, not tucked or hidden, but openly placed alongside the answer book; groups had formed for preparing ‘joint’ answers; many examinees were being assisted by relatives or others who ‘happened’ to be there—with the examination hall-supervisor standing nonchalantly and patronisingly with a benevolent eye. This scene alone would normally be enough for the average Indian to throw up his hands in despair for the future of the country—future executives, school teachers and politicians, who will bully and bluster the rest of India in the decades to come surely getting ‘qualified’. After 70 years of Independence, is this what India has been reduced to?

Was this scene only in Samastipur? Did not the DM or SP or the District Education Officer of Samastipur see it? Were there not standing instructions from the government asking for strict action against copying? Why did other TV channels not carry it? Was Samastipur the only delinquent examination centre? Were all other hundreds of centres conducting the examinations spotlessly pure? Has Order broken down in Bihar? Has the will to put down lawlessness been put to sleep in that state? How will any Indian or foreign company or university give any value to any degree from any Bihar university? When it is so easy to write an examination in Bihar, why did the ex-law minister of Delhi, Tomar, have to forge his own degree from Darbhanga? Most depressing of all, the nation took the scene in as normal, and without comment; much as it accepts mass abject poverty as the norm in India.

The Bihar authorities, if they can really be given that glorified appellation, toothless as they are, took ‘prompt’ earthshaking action. They cancelled the exams in the Samastipur centre and called for reexamination! Was the concerned college’s registration/affiliation cancelled? Who are they fooling? Was Samastipur the only place where this was happening? It would be a safe bet that nearly at every BA examination centre, the scene would have been the same.

One never heard Chief Minister Nitish Kumar condemning the event; mercifully the other protector of mankind from Bihar—Lalu Prasad—did not praise the event, as one would have expected. Clearly, Samastipur was par for the course. Intriguingly, neither did the Union Education Minister note the event, nor turned to look the other way, much like the local DM and SP did. Apparently, it is more important and easier to look for votes in Bihar than try to clean up the secondary and higher education mess that is there. The sad reality is that elections are due in the state in the next few months; no political party wants to ‘spoil’ chances by ‘antagonising’ the ‘youth vote’—you see, India is a democracy! Why did the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who forever takes a ‘principled’ stand, have nothing to say on the subject? Is it because AAP is allying with Nitish Kumar, or they have Tomar and other delinquent MLAs in their midst? Our politics stinks.

Is there no entrepreneurship in Bihar? It is now obvious that ‘examinations’ is a field in Bihar which offers enormous business potential. Since the authorities don’t seem to care, why not create a new corporate model for writing exams? For a fee, somebody else will write the exam for you with guaranteed ‘first class’ results; this can be arranged through the website, using your cell-phone. This will also help the employment problem of educated youth elsewhere in the country, who can go to Bihar and UP during examination time to become ghost writers. No more ugly scenes on TV, the issue can be resolved with finesse and respectability. Sophisticated thuggery is an acceptable business model in India—‘Write in Bihar’ can be a new national employment programme.

Education and health are the two most fundamental aspects of a citizen’s life. Any nation, which ignores or neglects the basic nature of these two themes, is bound to fail. Gresham’s law stipulates that what is happening in Bihar will spread elsewhere—it is a question of time. Even in the worst days of student unrest in West Bengal in the 60s, there was no mass copying permitted in Calcutta. Does Bihar give the first warning signal that our democracy is in serious decline, and is in peril?

tsrsubramanian@gmail.com

Subramanian is a former Cabinet Secretary