ગુજરાતી
English
Ahmedabad, May 29, 2024 (Google translation from Gujarati) 11 paper leaks, 201 accused in Gujarat recruitment scam model, selection board chairman resigns, but not a single punishment. Recruitment scams are not possible without government support. Asit Vora, a senior BJP leader and close to Narendra Modi and who dominates the Maninagar assembly seat, had to resign from the post of selection board chairman after an infamous scam. Similarly, the printing press which was in the news for the paper leak case had once printed Modi’s book.
One of Modi’s promises in the BJP’s election manifesto states, ‘We have made a strict law to prevent malpractices in government recruitment examinations. Now we will strictly implement this law and give severe punishment to those who play with the future of the youth. Earlier in February 2024, the central government passed the ‘Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill’.
This law is a mirror of the fraud happening with the youth across the country. Exams have been canceled due to paper leak but the hopes of many candidates have also been shattered. Due to 11 paper scam, about one crore candidates could not appear in the exam in Gujarat.
In the last five years, 41 recruitment exams in 15 states were canceled due to paper leak, causing a big setback to 1.4 crore applicants. Most newspapers were torn in Gujarat.
Law
BJP-ruled Gujarat passed a bill in February 2023 to prevent paper leaks of government recruitment exams. The Act provides for a maximum jail term of 10 years and a minimum fine of Rs 1 crore for the ‘organized crime’ of paper leak. Introducing the bill in the House, Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghvi admitted that 11 cases of paper leak have been reported in the state in the last 11 years. As a result, 11 cases were registered against 201 accused and charge sheets were filed in 10 cases.
Sanghvi said that the paper leak in Gujarat has deep roots and is linked to the BJP rule.
The Gujarat Subordinate Services Selection Board (GSSSB), which conducts exams for all government recruitments, and Surya Offset Printing Press in Ahmedabad, are where several papers are alleged to have been leaked.
The 2021 Head Clerk paper leak case is Gujarat’s most infamous recruitment scam in the last decade. It rocked the government and forced the then GSSSB chairman and BJP leader Asit Vora to resign following statewide protests.
88 thousand candidates
In the year 2021, the Gujarat Subordinate Services Selection Board (GSSSB) announced recruitment for 186 posts of Head Clerk. The exam was conducted on 12 December 2021 at around 700 centers in the state, in which 88,000 candidates appeared. The exam was cancelled when it was discovered that question papers worth Rs 10-15 lakh had been leaked before the exam.
The paper was leaked from Surya Offset Printing Press in Ahmedabad, with which GSSSB had tied up to publish the question paper.
The police arrested more than 30 people on March 9, 2022, and filed a 14,000-page chargesheet. Kishore Acharya was made the main accused. Printing press owner Mudresh Purohit was also questioned, but he was granted anticipatory bail in December 2021.
How can the exam papers come out from Surya Printing Press, which printed Modi’s book? The case is still going on in the court.
Surya Press’s name had come up earlier too
Surya Press’s name is already linked to the paper leak case. Gujarat University has blacklisted the printing press since the paper leak scandal came to light in 2004-05. The investigation team traced the role of Surya Printing Press. A printing press promoter was also jailed.
Surya Offset’s name was also linked to the paper leak case in Saurashtra University in December 2021. Papers of five universities were printed in this press.
Gujarat Congress alleges that Mudresh Purohit has links with RSS and BJP.
Let us tell you that the book ‘Sangharsha Ma Gujarat’ written by Narendra Modi in Gujarati on the Emergency in 1978 was published by Image Publications and the book was printed by Surya Offset. The PDF version of ‘Sangharsha Ma Gujarat’ available on Narendra Modi’s website shows that the first edition of the book was published in January 1978, the second edition in March of the same year, the third in September 2000 and the fourth in March 2008.
Surya Offset’s name as the printer and Narendra Modi’s book.
Printing press owner Mudresh Purohit believes, ‘Our company is not involved in this. It is true that a senior person of our company, Kishore Acharya, was caught by the police. His name is in the charge sheet. He is still in jail. He was working in our company for 30 years.
Anticipatory bail was taken. The police have not disclosed Maavik’s role. Anticipatory bail is not required. Police can question him if needed.
Purohit has been printing recruitment exam papers since 2006. They (selection board people) call for tenders for such work.
Purohit claimed that he is not from any political party and has no connection with the Sangh.
Purohit also denied that GU has blacklisted Surya Offset. ‘They never blacklisted us. We had a different dispute with them. That dispute was not related to paper leak. They thought that we were printing newspapers by taking more money than the contract and looting.
Misuse of contract. After this the matter went to court. A tribunal headed by three retired judges ruled in our favour. The university did not accept this decision. The matter is still going on in the High Court.
Purohit himself admits that Gujarat University and Surya did not work together after the academic year 2004-5. Worked in Gujarat University for 25 years. But stopped working with them after this case because it is not right to work with someone with whom you work well and then be falsely accused,’ Purohit says.
Purohit admits the Saurashtra University paper leak but says that it is not the fault of his press. The paper was leaked from the university. Other people were arrested in this case.
On the printing of Narendra Modi’s book, he said, ‘I was contacted by Image Publications, whose owners I have personal relations with. I have no direct acquaintance with Narendra Modi.
Many people in Gujarat are raising questions on the clarification given by Surya Press.
The papers get torn due to lack of strict action against those involved in previous incidents.
Service Selection Board and BJP
While mentioning the Gujarat Subordinate Services Selection Board, a prominent name is that of its former chairman Asit Vora. During his four-year tenure (2019-2022), the papers of two major recruitment exams were leaked. More than 15 lakh youth had applied for this. 12 lakh candidates appeared in the exam. There were allegations during Vora’s tenure. This also includes allegations of tampering with the exam results. Despite this, he was also given a second term. In February 2022, the head clerk resigned in the paper leak case.
Asit Vora?
Asit Vora was a councilor of Maninagar area. Earlier he used to prepare the election campaign song of BJP. He is a good singer. BJP’s campaign songs were sung in his voice. This job was given to him by Narendra Modi.
He was the chairman of the Khadi Committee of Ahmedabad Mahinagar Palika. He has been a BJP councilor from Maninagar five times when he was the mayor of Ahmedabad in October 2010. Narendra Modi’s man Asit Vora was the mayor of Ahmedabad. He was in charge of Narendra Modi’s Maninagar seat. Narendra Modi contested his first election from Maninagar assembly constituency after the Gujarat riots and represented the constituency till 2012.
As chief minister, Modi entrusted the then mayor Asit Vora with the task of developing Kankaria lake in Maninagar. The lake was one of the early initiatives of Modi’s ‘Gujarat model’. Asit Vora was present on the stage when Modi thanked the people of Maninagar after being elected MLA for the last time in 2012. Modi thanked him by calling him ‘Asit bhai’.
Question papers of 14 government job related exams have been leaked in a decade.
2013: GPSC chief officer recruitment exam
2015: Talati recruitment exam
2016: Talati recruitment exam conducted by district panchayat in Gandhinagar, Modasa, Surendranagar districts.
2018: TAT-Teacher Exam
2018: Mukhya Sevak Exam
2018: Bejod Chitnis Exam
2018: LRD-People’s Defense Force
2019: Non-Secretariat Clerk
2020: Government Recruitment Exams (Corona Period)
2021: Head Clerk
2021: DGVCL Vidyut Sahayak
2021: Sub Auditor 2022: Forest Guard
2023: Junior Clerk
The Wire investigated some of the biggest recruitment scams in Gujarat.
GPSC Chief Officer Recruitment Exam
The Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) advertised (Advertisement No. 25/2013-14) for 30 Class III Chief Officer (Municipal Corporation) posts in August 2013. The advertisement said that two exams would be conducted. Candidates who qualify in both the exams would be called for interview.
More than 80,000 candidates had applied for 30 seats. It was alleged that the question paper of the exam was leaked. The candidate came to know about the leak after the exam. According to the Times of India report, the police have arrested two people Bhuwal Chaudhary and Dilip Chaudhary in this case.
Investigators said, ‘Dilip is associated with a political party and is also a recovery agent of a finance company in the area. He has admitted to buying the paper for Rs 70,000. He sold his copies to many people including Bhuwal for Rs 40,000.’
Talaati (Patwari) Recruitment Exam
The written examination for the selection of grade-III employees in seven districts (Jakot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Amreli, Gandhinagar and Sabarkantha) was conducted by the ‘Gujarat Panchayat Seva Selection Board’ (GPSSB) on June 6, 2015. It was alleged that the question paper was leaked before the examination in Sabarkantha.
A few days after the written exam, Rajkot Zila Panchayat received an anonymous letter alleging that the paper was leaked in Rajkot as well. Rajkot Zila Panchayat officials wrote to the city police commissioner on July 23, requesting appropriate action.
After the police report was filed, the state government cancelled the exam on August 4, 2015. Later, the exam was re-conducted in Amreli and Bhavnagar on August 16 and in the rest of the districts on August 23.
TAT-Shikshak Pariksha
The state examination board conducted the Teachers Aptitude Test (TAT) on July 29, 2018. Around 1.47 lakh candidates appeared in the exam. But the state government had to cancel the exam after the paper was leaked in the social media. TAT exam for primary school teacher jobs
It is mandatory to pass the exam.
The board conducted the exam again in January 2019. This time too there were allegations of paper leak. Police registered a case against supervisor Manish Buch at the examination center of Satya Sai School on Cyprus Section Road in Jamnagar. According to a news report, Buch was the headmaster of a private school.
Junior Clerk Exam
On January 29, 2023, the Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board (GPSSB) conducted an examination for the recruitment of 1,181 junior clerks. But the exam had to be canceled due to paper leak. A total of 9.5 lakh candidates had applied for the examination to be held at 2,995 centers across the state.
As per the assurance, the government re-conducted the canceled entrance exam within 100 days. The exam result came in August 2023.
The government has a schedule for everything but there is no schedule for giving exams and joining. The government issues announcements whenever it wants in two years, three years, four years, five years. After this, it is not known whether the exam will be held in two months or four months. After this, there is a fear of paper leak.
After five years, the government conducted an examination in 2023 for the recruitment of teachers in Gujarat. The exam results also came, people passed and sat for a year, joining did not happen.
He says, ‘Two papers have been leaked after the law was passed. The new law did not work in the NEET paper and the exam held in Rajkot.
Fifteen thousand rupees are spent a month in preparation from village to Gandhinagar.
In three years (2020-21 to 2022-23), there has been a 21 percent increase in cases of suicide among students in Gujarat. Between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2023, a total of 495 students of schools and universities took their own lives. Fifty percent of these i.e. 246 were girls.
He was under stress due to the cancellation of the paper. They were dying by drinking poison. They were committing suicide. Due to repeated failure, it hung on the fan. People preferred death due to not getting government jobs.
The government’s law is only to throw dust in the eyes of the public.
While the State Law Commission took cognizance of this, the government has caught only small fish in the paper leak case.
Paper leak has become an organised crime in Gujarat. As soon as the advertisement comes, the candidate and the bribe amount are decided. The cost of TAT is seven to ten lakh rupees. The cost of Talati is fifteen lakh rupees.
The Wire has GSSSB Secretary Hasmukh Patel on the paper leak case.
Surya was never in the offset blacklist.
BJP denies
Speaking to The Wire, Gujarat BJP chief spokesperson Yamal Vyas denied that BJP-RSS people were involved in the paper leak case. When asked about the BJP’s connection with Surya Offset Printing Press owner Mudresh Purohit, he said, “I do not know any such person.” All examinations in Gujarat are being covered by CCTV. (Google translation from Gujarati)
