#dnaEdit: Dangerous drift

The suspicious deaths of 44 accused persons and witnesses in the Vyapam admission and recruitment scam raises visions of a cover-up aimed at protecting influential persons. The deaths, 25, according to the official body count—in road accidents, suicides, and illnesses—are not unnatural, says the Madhya Pradesh government. Such complacency in the face of so many deaths is untenable. The Congress party and at least one whistleblower have alleged the involvement of MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and governor Ram Naresh Yadav in the scam. In fact, an FIR was lodged against Yadav but the MP high court came to his rescue, ruling that the governor’s post gave him constitutional immunity from prosecution. Among the dead is Yadav’s son, Shailesh, who was accused of taking Rs10 lakh in the Raj Bhavan to ensure that 10 candidates cleared a contractual teacher examination. The Vyapam scam has evolved into the largest criminal prosecution pursued by a state government. The Special Task Force(STF) has reportedly arrested nearly 1,800 students, parents, jobseekers and middlemen, and is hunting for another 800 persons. But save for a former education minister, some senior officials of the MP Professional Examination Board(Vyapam) and police officers, the big fish seem to have eluded the STF net.

The extent of official and civilian complicity in the scam can be surmised from the fact that it continued between 2007 and 2013, and involved a wide gamut of recruitments to the police, excise, revenue, health and education departments as well as examinations to a range of professional courses, especially medicine and dentistry. The massive racket that comprehensively rigged the Vyapam system revolved around impersonation of candidates by switching photographs on admit cards, facilitating copying in examination halls, and leaving OMR answer sheets blank which were filled in with correct answers later. However, the implications of such criminality go beyond the role of politicians or officials. When selection to employment and educational opportunities gets subverted in this manner, it is reflective of a public that is losing, or has already lost, trust in institutions. When parents secure admissions for their wards to colleges and jobs, which they would otherwise not qualify for, merit becomes the casualty. Of course, the demand-supply gap in affordable public education or state government jobs makes these illegal avenues infinitely attractive to aspirants. The insidious nexus of official corruption, middlemen and avaricious aspirants has created a parallel economy, chipping away at the principles of truth and honesty that the rule of law promised to uphold.

Before we are left with a completely hollowed out system filled with and manned by dubious professionals and bureaucrats, it is important that the criminal justice delivery system do its job without fear or favour. The whistleblowers in the Vyapam case allege that only a fraction of the beneficiaries have been uncovered. Similar crimes are happening across the country. Former Haryana Chief Minister OP Chautala was convicted for a massive teacher recruitment scam. Recently, the Supreme Court quashed the All-India Pre-Medical Test conducted by the CBSE because of large-scale irregularities. The Union law minister Sadananda Gowda has written to the Delhi high court alleging favouritism by judges in the conduct of the Delhi judicial services examinations. If the Vyapam scam probe is being derailed because of the alleged involvement of influential figures, independent agencies like the CBI must take over. The issue is political, not merely because of the alleged involvement of leaders who ventured into personal enrichment, but more so because it concerns the future of the Indian State.

Unless truth and fair play are restored in the conduct of examinations and recruitments, we are perpetuating a system that allows for lies, fraud and dishonesty.