THE EIGHTIETH YEAR of India’s independence from colonial rule is historic in every sense of the term. It is tragic that on this occasion of national significance, the youth of our country are confronting their existential crisis manifested in the leaking of examination question papers and recruitment scams. The traumatised youth is now at the forefront in spearheading a movement demanding accountability of the Government for paper leaks and earnestly asking for a quality education rooted in values of honesty and integrity. Undoubtedly, the interrogations of the youth are rational and logical. They are questioning, “Is this the way we redeem our pledge for which we made a tryst with our destiny long ago?” – to use Jawaharlal Nehru’s ringing words uttered at the stroke of midnight when India got independence.
C.D. Deshmukh’s Example in Defence of Quality Examination
It is well documented in history that Lokmanya Tilak’s clarion call, “Swaraj is My Birth Right and I shall Have it”, electrified the nation for achieving freedom from colonial rule. It was during that phase of our history that a young Indian, Chintamani Dwarkanath Deshmukh, the founder of India International Centre in Delhi, who topped the Indian Civil Service (‘ICS’) in1919 by clearing a tough examination conducted in London, thought of sacrificing the coveted service and plunging into the freedom struggle.
While in London, Deshmukh met Tilak and asked if it would be wise for him to be part of the freedom movement by shunning the coveted civil service. In his autobiography “The Course of My Life” published in 1974, he gave an account of his interactions with Tilak in London in 1920 and seeking his guidance in regard to his future line of action. He asked him, “Although I had passed into the ICS, did my duty call me to participate in the political struggle?” “No”, said Tilak emphatically and proceeded to add with a firm assertion, “We are sure to achieve independence soon, and India will need trained administrators to reinforce self-government”.
The profound articulations of Lokmanya Tilak that self-government in India would endure on the strength of trained civil servants recruited based on their merit and worth decisively determined through a rigorous examination system are of seminal significance when the integrity of examinations has been violated by the powers that be.
Life rarely offers ‘answer keys’. An honest examination culture teaches young ones to face challenges and life situations with their own preparation and resilience. Young ones get the opportunity in examinations to encounter the first structured ‘test’ of integrity, and consequently success through hard work builds their moral character.
Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Harijan published in 1938, “character building is more important than career building.” Thus, an honest examination system helps students, teachers and institutions identify the real strengths and weaknesses. This is the hallmark of a mature democratic nation.
Cockroach Movement
Just a few months before the commencement of the 80th year of independence, it was the Chief Justice of India who made oral observations that unemployed youth are like ‘cockroaches’. His clarifications, later, that those observations were in the context of those having fake law degrees were of no avail.
Those words of the CJI hurt the self-respect of many young Indians who are struggling hard to get settled in life. In response, a young Indian, Abhijeet Dipke, well-versed in information technology and political communication, formed a satirical Cockroach Janata Party (‘CJP’) online and asked the youth of India to join and support it. In four to five days, millions of Indian youth joined CJP virtually and expressed their solidarity with Dipke. If one dissects the given socio-political development as a rational and thinking Indian, one could very well make out that the response to the virtual group is a reflection of the wounded self-respect of young Indians who are crushed under a cracking system exhibiting paper leaks, employment scams in different states and massive unemployment.
The most recent incident was the NEET exam paper leak and the suicide of 21 adolescents, the budding talents of our country. On getting an unprecedented online response, the founder of CJP gave a call to all cockroaches to gather at Jantar Mantar to protest against NEET exam paper leaks and the massive fiasco caused due to the bungling of the evaluation of Class 12 answer sheets. The response to the protest call was massive and spontaneous. Probably, the youth of the 21st century thought the older generation did not desire to understand their pains and sufferings and the administration had no ‘governmentality’, the active consent and willingness of individuals to participate in their own governance. Their intense feelings transformed into a strong resolve and resulted in their demand for accountability from the governors.
“We are sure to achieve independence soon, and India will need trained administrators to reinforce self-government”, Lokmanya Tilak said.
The self-government which Tilak envisaged to sustain on the strength of able services of trained civil servants and other professionals selected after proving their academic excellence in an error-free examination is now getting demolished because the question papers of several examinations conducted by the National Testing Agency and even by some Public Service Commissions of States are being leaked before the conduct of examinations.
Thus, the recurrent violations of the sanctity of the examinations tragically constitute the ‘sliding off’ of the lofty vision of Swaraj for which our freedom fighters struggled and sacrificed their lives.
Upholding Accountability
A month-long historic protest movement of the Cockroach Janata Party was organised at Jantar Mantar, Delhi. It was actively and extraordinarily taken forward by some students’ organisations like All India Students Association, Students Federation of India and All India Students Federation. It is extremely educative and heartening to note that during that protest movement, centered around the demand for quality education and integrity of the examination process, the protestors relentlessly asked for accountability of the present Union Government and specifically of Union Education Minister, Mr Dharmendra Pradhan, for his acts of commission and omission concerning NEET exam paper leaks.
In doing so, the protestors were upholding the foundational pillar of parliamentary democracy, about which Ambedkar said in the Constituent Assembly on November 4, 1948 that accountability of the Government to the people and legislature is the defining feature of parliamentary democracy, which constitutes an integral part of the basic structure of the Constitution. It is of extraordinary significance that the protest movement launched by students to demand accountability of the Union Education Minister, Mr Dharmendra Pradhan, could sustain itself, spread across the country in spite of police lathi charge, firing of tear gas shells and pellet guns and registered remarkable success.
How is it that the Government who took the oath of allegiance to the Constitution would treat the protesting youths in such a brutal way when the Constitution itself mandates that organisation of peaceful protest is a fundamental right and one of the Basic Freedoms under Article 19 of our Constitution? They are engaged in a struggle anchored in B R Ambedkar’s slogan “Educate, Agitate and Organise”. Eventually, the Union Education Minister resigned, and thereby the student movement incredibly succeeded in holding the Government to account and signalling the crucial point, a few days before the 80th year of our independence, that the movement of the youth could make the Government answerable for its acts.
Their struggle for safeguarding the purity and integrity of the examination system is a struggle for sustaining the self-government established in India following our independence from British rule.
The self-government which Tilak envisaged to sustain on the strength of able services of trained civil servants and other professionals selected after proving their academic excellence in an error-free examination is now getting demolished.
Constituent Assembly’s Intent on Examinations
It is imperative to note that Article 320 of the Constitution mandates that, “It shall be the duty of the Union and the State Public Service Commissions to conduct examinations for appointments to the services of the Union and the services of the States respectively.”
The corresponding Article in the Draft Constitution prepared by the Constituent Assembly was Article 286. When it was discussed in the said Assembly on August 23, 1949, its distinguished member, Naziruddin Ahmad, very thoughtfully stated that “The very object of a Public Service Commission is to provide the country with a competent and reliable administrative machinery through examination and otherwise to select fit candidates without fear or favour. The very utility of the Public Service Commission is its independence, its aloofness from politics and its elevated status.”
The Constituent Assembly’s vision of a Public Service Commission providing the nation with a competent and reliable administrative machinery through merit-based examinations can never be realised if the examination question papers are leaked. It is sad to note that there have been over 220 major examination frauds and paper leak incidents across various States in the last two decades in India. Against this tragic backdrop, what meaning can India’s 80th year of independence truly have, especially when the declining standards of governance reflect a collapse of integrity in safeguarding question papers from vested interests who are determined to mint money by leaking them?
Another Member of the Constituent Assembly, S. Nagappa, arguing in favour of written examination instead of only interviews, specifically referred to the mandate of the Public Service Commissions to conduct examinations and said, “.....Sir, I would prefer to have a curriculum prescribed, and text-books laid down for these people. There should not only be an oral examination, but some sort of written examination also.”
Such remarks made in the Constituent Assembly in 1949 indicated that the Members concerned wanted quality in examinations so that the real worth of candidates is judged.
None of the members of the Constituent Assembly who then participated in the discussion on Article 286 had expressed apprehension in 1949 that question papers would be leaked. Probably, they had not thought of such a development in independent India. They only apprehended that the independence of Public Service Commissions might be compromised because different political parties ruling over States or our country might exert pressure which may lead to compromising the integrity and impartiality of public service commissions.
It was reflected in the remarks of Laxminarayan Sahu, a Member of the Constituent Assembly representing Orissa (now Odisha). While speaking on Article 286 on August 23, 1949, he cautioned, “...we are providing for the formation of a Public Service Commission solely with a view to ensure the smooth and efficient running of our Republican Government”. Apprehending any political pressure on the Commissions by political parties in a democracy, he outlined one of the objectives of the Public Service Commissions by stating, “We are going to form the Public Service Commission solely with a view that political parties may not be in a position to adopt such methods” and “...no one may be able to suggest that the Services are working under their influence.”
Dr. Ambedkar explained in the Constituent Assembly on August 22, 1949 that Article 285C of the draft Constitution (Article 319 of the Constitution) prohibited the members of the Public Service Commissions of the States and of Union Public Service Commission to hold, among others, Government offices on ceasing to be such members. He explained that the objective behind such a provision was that the “….the Members of the Commission will be as independent as they are expected to be.” Such safeguards to protect the autonomy and independence of the Public Service Commissions were provided so that its members could function freely and without any external interference for discharging their duties one of which is to conduct examinations fairly and and honestly.
None of the members of the Constituent Assembly who then participated in the discussion on Article 286 had expressed apprehension in 1949 that question papers would be leaked.
These discussions in the Constituent Assembly unmistakably indicate that by appointing people and personnel of integrity in bodies conducting examinations and keeping such bodies immune to political control and influence, the integrity of examinations can be ensured so as to safeguard our self -government. It is pertinent to mention that it is not sufficient to have ‘governability’; rather it is important to make the public institutions act with efficiency and in tune with constitutional morality.
Further, it is salutary to recall that a Member of the Constituent Assembly, Dr P.S. Deshmukh, while participating in the discussion on draft Article 286 on August 23,1949 harped on the necessity of providing a high standard of education to all sections of society including other backward classes in the pattern of the erstwhile Madras province which is now Tamil Nadu. Those remarks of P.S. Deshmukh resonate with the demands of the protesting youth across the country for inclusive education along with quality when we are celebrating the 80th year of our independence.
Real independence would mean safeguarding the future of youth on whose shoulders rests the future of our country. Therefore, the youth agitation for the first time anchored in quality education and integrity of the examination system augurs well for our people and society; and not to be understood as rebellion against the administration. The true intent of accountability would be ensured if the leaders could enhance citizen confidence in the administrative institutions of government.