HRD Ministry fears for what scandals await it

Now that the CBI is zeroing in on a source of leak outside the IIM campuses, there is a degree of confidence that is returning to his stride, his interaction — even the odd confrontation — with the media.

The IIM is in touch with its powerful corporate patrons to ensure that the control lever of the CAT process remains in its hands. ‘‘We shall identify the loophole and plug it,’’ assured Professor B.N.Srivastava, dean, programme initative of IIM Kolkata with newfound self-belief.

After the first IIM set up its campus in Joka in the south-western suburbs of Kolkata in 1961, the sanctity of the entrance examination had never been questioned, let alone defiled. Said Professor Indira Parikh, dean, IIM Ahmedabad, ‘‘Earlier, it used to be Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, which took charge of the admission test. The common examination came much later when IIM Bangalore was born in the late 1970s.’’

‘‘It is one of the most well-planned and methodically executed examinations,’’ asserted Professor Sekhar Chowdhury, director, IIM Calcutta. And the younger academcic crop explained how every question was the result of a creative spark, how paper-setters were kept entirely in the dark, how even directors would treat the chairpersons of the admissions committee as some form of superhuman species.

Parikh pointed out with literary flair, ‘‘It’s all so ritualised now. It is almost a sacrilege to get close to a steel trunk containing the question papers if you have not been authorised. You must see how they unseal the trunk minutes before the examination. It’s awe-inspiring.’’

It’s complacency that may have been CAT’s undoing. The Bihar gang must have studied the loopholes carefully and assessed each one of them. To bell the CAT, they had blown a hole after spotting exactly where the chain had its weakest link.

This hole is now under wider scrutiny. The Human Resource Development Ministry, staring greedily at the IIM’s increasing fiscal autonomy, has appointed former CAG V.K. Shunglu to probe these soft spots.

‘‘In the long run, we want to take a look at all these countrywide examinations,’’ said a senior official. Within the first fortnight of December, the HRD Ministry is expected to set up a committee of experts to take a close look at the pre-medical examination conducted by the CBSE .

‘‘We are not suggesting in anyway that there is corruption in the IIM. But they had not been alert enough to identify changing tactics being adopted by these examination mafiosi. You can’t live in isolation in verdant IIM campuses.’’

What the HRD ministry is hinting at just now is that the IIMs should involve the government at some stage . And these hints are enough to suggest that the government wants a greater role in the examination process now that it plans a single common test for admission to all management courses from next year.

THE relief in the academic community is that criminals have done it and not someone among them. ‘‘These onslaughts from outside can always be fought may be with limited government support,’’ said an IIM professor. ‘‘A lesson had to be learnt and now we are certain that none of our past few batches have bought their way in through clandestine routes,’’ he argued.

That the ministry is worried is more than apparent. ‘‘If the CAT system can be penetrated, then what about the innumerable other central and state examination including the esteemed joint entrance test for the IITs,’’ said a bureaucrat. He suggested that the ministry might think later of convening a meeting with all state education ministers and discussing the modalities of a single leak-proof formula.

‘‘In some states like Bihar, any examination will arouse suspicion of being tampered with some way or the other,’’ the official pointed out. ‘‘But before we get to the state boards, we need to bring several major examination procedures including those for national institutes of technology, for AIIMS and other prestigious medical courses under the scanner.’’

Professor P.V. Indiresan, former director of IIT, Chennai, felt that there were two option to eliminate these leakage points. First, decide on the final question paper on the morning of the examination and put it out on the Internet minutes before the test. Else, the IIMs and IITs could give more weightage to the background of the student and his academic track record.

As the government now racks its brains to look for a solution, it is certain that the CAT controversy is far from over. A systemic lapse cannot be denied. And the HRD ministry will not rest till it gets to point an accusing finger at someone or some group in IIM’s academic fraternity.