‘We have lost faith in the test’: As ‘paper leak’ heat singes Pushkar Dhami govt, his ‘nakal jihad’ claims fail to cut ice with protesters

Uttarakhand Swabhiman Morcha president Bobby Panwar alleged that by 11.30 am on the day of the exam, the question paper had leaked. The paper was allegedly sent by a candidate, Khalid Malik, to his sister, who sent it to a college professor to get it answered. But the professor sent it to Panwar, who circulated it online, claiming rigging at the level of the commission. Over the last week, two people have been arrested, Khalid and his sister Sabia, and Chief Minister Dhami has termed the incident “nakal (cheating) jihad”.

Incidentally, the man accused of leaking the same exam paper in 2021, Hakam Singh, a former BJP leader, was arrested a day before the exam. He had allegedly demanded Rs 15 lakh from candidates for helping them pass.

Dehradun is home to hundreds of coaching centres where students from across the state spend years preparing for recruitment tests. The September 21 exam for the posts of patwari, lekhpal, village development officer, and six others for graduate-level aspirants had 416 vacancies. In Dehradun alone, over 40,000 candidates showed up at 121 centres.

On Saturday, Dhami cast aspersions on the leaders of the protest. “Those who politicise this do not have anything to do with the students and their exam. However, it is our responsibility to give 25,000 opportunities. We have formed an SIT under a retired judge, and whatever surfaces in the probe, we will take action. It is unfortunate that those on behalf of students are raising anti-national and anti-sanatan slogans. But the youth are wise and nationalistic as our state shares borders with two countries, and they belong to Devbhoomi, so they will move forward with these ideals,” he said.

At the Parade Ground, though, the anger against the CM is palpable.

Getting on the stage to “fact-check” Dhami, Berozgar Sangh president Ram Kandwal says, “Over the last four years, 2,745 permanent posts in the government have been filled, 6,250 have been recruited on a contractual basis, and the process is underway for appointment in 8,498 posts. We have the list of the permanent posts and refute these claims made by the CM.”

In the crowd is Anju Rana, a participant and junior-engineer post aspirant, who says that the CBI probe will reveal the “corruption in the system”. “How can a candidate smuggle a phone into a centre which has two invigilators in every exam hall? You are at fault if he could get the phone in under your noses,” Rana says. A diploma holder in civil engineering, the 25-year-old has been preparing for the post in the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission since she graduated in 2020.

In 2021, the exam she had been preparing for was cancelled after irregularities were found. Similarly, the UKSSSC exam in December that year saw a paper leak. In January 2023, the UKPSC patwari and accountant exam was cancelled due to alleged irregularities. In many cases, question papers were allegedly sold to candidates at high prices, eroding the aspirants’ trust in the recruitment exam commissions. This had resulted in widespread protests in February 2023, leading to a lathi charge on protesters.

Rana says a re-examination was conducted for the same post, and the results came out last year. She was unsuccessful. “We are waiting for the PSC to notify us of the next date for examination, but we have lost faith in the test. We are participating in the protest in solidarity because if this is not addressed, we will face the same fate,” she adds.

The protesters add that Hakam Singh’s associate had allegedly promised the aspirants who approached him that the optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet would be tampered with to help them pass in return for Rs 15 lakh.

Simran Panwar, a 26-year-old aspirant who has been preparing for seven years, criticised the Act brought in to crack down on cheating. The Uttarakhand Competitive Examination (Measures for Prevention and Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Act 2023 laid out life terms and a penalty of up to Rs 10 crore for those found facilitating cheating in recruitment exams.

“Hakam Singh got out due to the prosecution’s inability, and he was arrested again for cheating. This is the level of stringency of the Act passed on the pretext of preventing cheating and leaks,” she says.

On the incident being termed “nakal jihad”, Panwar says that the affected students include everyone, irrespective of religion. “The government has been frequently labelling everything from land encroachment to cheating as jihad. If there is any nexus working to take over, like they claim, why haven’t they caught the accused? This rhetoric is to derail us from our demands, and we will not fall prey to it,” 26-year-old Panwar says.

Kandwal says that in four days, if their demands are not met, they will call on every unemployed youth to gather in Dehradun. Speaking to The Indian Express, he says, “We will ensure over 20,000 youths come to Dehradun, and we will not leave until the CBI probe is ordered and the examination cancelled.”

The protests have garnered national attention with the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, attacking the Dhami-led government on Friday. He said that unemployment is the biggest problem in the country today. “The paper thieves know that even if the youth don’t get jobs, they will remain in power by stealing votes in elections. The youth are on the streets chanting the slogan, ‘paper chor, gaddi chhor’ (paper thief, quit the chair),” he posted on X. Kandwal welcomes the attention. “Anyone, including the BJP, is welcome to join our protests,” he says.

At the bus stop near the ground, Amisha and Soni are leaving for their rented house after the day’s protest. The residents of Tehri and Pauri Garhwal have been joining other aspirants every day at 10 am since Monday. The duo came to the city last year to prepare for the test, and their parents had been meeting their expenses. They are concerned about how to convince their parents to let them stay in Dehradun. Soni had performed well in the test and was beaming when she came back home from the exam centre. Her heart sank when she saw the social media posts on the “leak”. “It is another battle we wage to reach cities such as Dehradun. With a blow like this, they will ask me to go back home and get me married. We don’t have the luxury to wait for the next test,” she says.