If a routine affair going awry triggers massive, disproportionate response, then one should surmise that there is something seriously wrong with the actors behind it and the system they run. If the response of the Union government and the National Testing Agency (NTA) to the leakage of question papers for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Neet) for undergraduate medical courses in the country and the war-like preparation it made for a re-test is any indication, then there is something seriously amiss with the way the Union government and its agencies are run.
Some measures are part of the routine but their combined effect is chilling: mobilisation of nearly seven lakh personnel including police teams, observers, invigilators and examination staff across the country; the Indian Air Force flying more than 200 sorties to transport the question papers to various parts of the country; introduction of Aadhaar-based biometric verification and face authentication; two-layer frisking; CCTV surveillance and deployment of mobile signal jammers at the examination centres; and the setting up of the command-and-control centres at the NTA headquarters, the ministry of education, central institutions, state-level monitoring centres and district collectorates to oversee the examination in real time. To crown it all, the education minister visited the NTA headquarters hours before to get a briefing on the ‘logistical and technical measures adopted to ensure the efficient and transparent conduct’ of the re-test.
Except for the invocation of Article 352 to declare a National Emergency or the clamping of curfew, the country witnessed measures normally associated with wartime while it was in fact conducting an entrance test attended by 20 lakh teens who are focused on building a career in medicine.
It was the lethargy, inefficiency and irresponsibility of the men and women who sit at the top of the ministry of education and the NTA that led to the cancellation of the Neet held on May 3, after reports of question paper leakage emerged.
But it was not all that accidental: irregularities in the conduct of Neet have been reported from the time the NTA first conducted the test in 2019. A major security lapse and allegations of question paper leakage were reported as late as 2024; the whole country witnessed the Supreme Court taking charge of the matter, though it ultimately offered no real solution.
The fact is that the government and the NTA refused to learn from its mistakes. On the contrary, the gravity of wrongdoing increased. Earlier, isolated cases involved greedy local agents who bribed the local authorities to get a copy of the question papers; the Central Bureau of Investigation probing this year’s leak has found that the very people the NTA had entrusted with the setting the question papers were responsible for the treacherous act.
The government’s over-the-top response is an indicator that professional resources with the know-how and technical tools are not in charge of the whole exercise. Such people and tools are available in India, and they keep conducting examination after examination without causing a flutter. The government must at least now display the wisdom to deploy them instead of moving heaven and earth unwarrantedly.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
