Kr Swarn Kishore Singh
Vyapam, an acronym of Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal is an autonomous body which conducts examinations for admission to professional institutions and recruitments to Government jobs across the state of Madhya Pradesh. These days it is helping a lot of people in exercise of their mouths, the mouths which had after a long time had learnt to remain shut. Anyway, Vyapam as a matter of fact is nothing less than a hazard. It is a grand collusion which engulfs a lot of politicos, bureaucrats, some middleman and agents and lots of students as well. But with the increase in the intensity of graveness of this issue, the caution over fixing of responsibility needs to be multiplied proportionately.
Vyapam scam, being a fraud of admission and recruitment of professionals of state also makes it grievous because we will be having a sub-standard of batch of professionals spread across the state. They will be treating our people, building roads, buildings and bridges for us and what not. So the state will be having a lot of Munna Bhai sort of doctors, engineers and lawyers as well. But if you people are thinking that this scam is a recent one, then please wake up to the reality. These mal-practices had started way back in late eighties. Even when Madhya Pradesh had not come out of the grief of Bhopal Gas tragedy, this scam was going on without attracting much of public scrutiny. Since then Madhya Pradesh has seen eight Chief Ministers and a term of President Rule stretching almost a year.
This scam has not been a haphazard network; it was a well planned and an organised sort of mini-system going in the Vyapam. There were some agents who arranged clients, then some middlemen who had their contacts in Vyapam, then the officials in the Vyapam itself. The agents used to arrange brilliant students to appear in place of the original candidate. Even the agents with the help of their bosses even used to fill the OMR sheets of the candidates in their offices which are meant to be filled in examination halls. The whole system was kept at ransom by this bunch of people, and the administrations perpetually choose to ignore this sinister arrangement.
This scam is not criminal only as an act but its effects are way more felonious than the act itself. When some undeserving candidates were selected, then it can be easily inferred that the deserving candidates were ignored. In this way the intellect which was needed to be harnessed was insulted at the hands of few criminal minded Government officials and other agents. Now this deficit which has got incurred to the state can never be retrieved, it has demoralised the youth who were working hard for jobs and admissions in Government institutions. They have got to know that the seats for admission were sold for 10-40 lacs per head. It has not only lead to intellectual deficit but a trust deficit as well; the credibility of the Vyapam will be seriously questioned.
Then comes the issue of fixing of responsibility; this scam had been going on since late eighties, but nobody bothered to nip the evil in the bud. In this case I would be failing in my duty if I will not congratulate Omar Abdullah when a similar scam which was in making was tackled with ultimate political maturity and uprightness; the chairman of J&K Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) was arrested by the Crime Branch. He was arrested for similar charges which are coming up in Vyapam Scam. Although Vyapam scam is lot bigger wherein senior bureaucrats, ministers and even the Governor is allegedly involved and are named as accused in the FIR.
Murders of middlemen, suicides of students, conspicuous deaths of those involved in this scam and desperate threats to whistle blowers; all these things show that something big is lying at the bottom. Even the son of Governor of Madhya Pradesh, who was an accused in this scam fell prey to the mercilessness of this dark game to be found dead in his house in Lucknow.
Some big player is sitting at the top of it who is manipulating all this. But connecting it to politics exhibits serious desperation of an opposition which has failed to find any genuine issue to corner the Government on. As I told above that since the scam had started way back in late eighties, Madhya Pradesh has seen eight Chief Ministers, four are from Congress and four from Bhartiya Janta Party. Matters of these malpractices were reported since 1995 and first FIR was lodged way back in 2000. If some Chief Minister is to be accused for this scam then it should be Digvijay Singh, who had been Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh during the time when this scam was reported for the first time. He has remained the Chief Minister for exactly ten years from 1993-2003. And if Shivraj Singh Chauhan should be blamed for all this then sparing other seven is criminal. BJP should also not leave Shivraj Singh holding the baby; infact in 2009 he for the first time had formed a committee to probe the irregularities. The committee handed over the report and in 2011 the Shivraj Singh Govt had announced that all the students who had gained admission by unfair means would be asked to quit their courses, even those who had already spent some years taking that very course. Then in 2014, while hearing a plea of Digvijay Singh, High court of Madhya Pradesh, had ordered setting up of a Special Investigation team (SIT) and the SIT was formed to be chaired by a retired High Court judge. But recently when it hit the headlines to cover LalitGate and its connection to Sonia Gandhi and her family including her son-in-law Robert Vadra, some gentlemen reached Supreme Court for direction to CBI for probing this scam. Although the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh had himself called for a CBI inquiry to honour the public sentiment, but the guys like Digvijay Singh and comedian turned politician Kumar Vishwas were in a hurry to show their presence by politicising an issue which is more a criminal issue than a political one. The Supreme Court aptly ordered CBI to probe the scam and the connected deaths. Now let’s wait for the CBI to investigate the issue and come with the report which will help the truth see the light of the day. And the people who were desperate to seek involvement of CBI should be fair enough to digest and accept whatever comes out in the investigation of CBI and should not cry foul then.
(The author is an advocate in Supreme Court and a political observer)
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