Mainstream WeeklyThe first non-Congress governments were formed in many states after the fourth general elections in 1967 and in Delhi Jana Sangh was elected to the Delhi Metropolitan Council, an advisory body with considerable powers to run the Delhi Administration. Late Vijay Kumar Malhotra, then a young Jana Sangh leader from West Delhi became the chief executive councillor and in his capacity as Leader of the House, he appointed L.K. Advani as the Chairman of the Council, the first non-elected chairman of a duly elected body anywhere in India.
I used to be in Class 10 those days and in Timarpur, where we lived in a government quarter allotted to my mother, a govt school teacher, most of my friends, were young teenagers going to Anglo Sanskrit, Mahavir Jain, Gujarati Higher Secondary School, Ramjas, DAV Schools all around Delhi, fully aided by the Delhi government. And so, under the overall administrative and financial control of the newly constituted Jana Sangh administration.
Most of my friends here whose parents were mostly government clerks, also attended RSS Shakhas, being held in the Lucknow Road government girls higher secondary school, a walking distance from our quarter at Lancers’ Road, almost next to the Mall Road bus stop. All of us were studying science in the hope of becoming doctors or engineers once we pass out from the school and most of these boys (not all of course) were good at studies. And between 1967 and 69 when I finally passed Higher Secondary, they were securing admissions to Delhi College of Engineering, or those aspiring to become doctors would get immediate admission to campus colleges for Pre-Medical and the next year into Maulana Azad Medical College.
They were good at studies and mostly deserved to reach there. But I distinctly remember one of my friends, still very much around, told me one day how the principal of their school, one Mr Kapoor, himself a science teacher, used to call Higher Secondary Board examinees to their school about half an hour earlier, open the question paper (Physics, Chemistry and Maths) solve these on the black board and then shooed them away. It was so arranged that their centre was next door Mahavir Jain school, while the boys from that school had their centre in this school. A comfortable exchange, facilitated by the Delhi administration. Naturally then the boys of these schools scored much better than others and had no problem securing admission to the colleges of their choice. This arrangement carried on for I don’t know how many years, because once I went to Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), I lost track of such developments back home.
This long story I told here is to illustrate how insidiously the Jana Sangh/ RSS worked even then to secure the careers of their shakha going students. On the other hand, our centres used to be far away from our school, to prevent any misuse of the invigilating authorities of our schools, which was fair enough and which is how it ought to have been done.
It is no coincidence that year after year the leaks of the NTA papers for the National Entrance Examination Test (NEET) and other similar examinations take place and mostly start from states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, or say Karnataka, when it is under BJP rule. There seems to be a pattern in this. Many of the coaching centres seem to have developed a network, presumably with state patronage, to secure the question papers in advance to ensure good results for their boys. For the rest those who can afford to pay in lakhs for the leaked paper, stand to gain from these leaks. The victims then are mainly the poor honest students, cutting across caste, region and community lines. My son failed to secure admission to the Jaypee Un9iversity of Information Technology (JUIT), Solan in 2006 by just one position, even though it turned out to be a vacancy which I was told was cornered through capitation fees and contact.
Modi announced a committee under Nandan Nilekani to demonstrate his sincerity in reforming the NTA. But can we believe him? The latest National Testing Agency (NTA) paper leak, destroying the future of lakhs and lakhs of young boys and girls took place in April-May. All these months this government did precious little except to order a re-exam by the same NTA with little concern for the poor children and zero accountability of the men at the top under whom the NEET, the CUET and even CBSE exams lost credibility due to widespread bungling by the examination authority.
Suddenly after all these months the Government announced an overhaul of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and a committee led by Infosys partner Nandan Nilenkani, but there is need to check the antecedents of other members of this committee. This promise sounds as hollow as Modi’s other promises and public commitments only to weather the current storm. For instance, the government announced sacking of 47 employees of the NTA But even this figure is suspect and how?
The other day Union Minister of State (MoS) for Education Sukanta Majumdar had told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that of the 39 posts (mind you 39 here not 47) in the NTA 15 are lying vacant. In his reply to a question raised by CPM MP V. Sivadasan he told the House that the NTA relies heavily on external hiring, engaging 73 officials on contract—including a general manager of communications, senior advisers and consultants—alongside 124 outsourced personnel covering roles like data analysis and related duties. This is the state of NTA, with or without Dharmendra Pradhan whom the BJP feted in the face of the Opposition just to thumb their nose at the critic of this government.
As an Opposition leader pointed out during the debate on the Public Examinati9on (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, where is the point of these so-called reforms when the chairman of the NTA stays put in his office? And it was pointed out that there were allegations against him as the chairman of MP Public Service Commission earlier, after which he was shifted to Chhatisgarh again to head the state Public Service Commission and again he did not come out clean.
Its not a question of one person or official. Higher education has been devalued in Modi regime because the whole attitude of this government is to accommodate its undeserving pets as university professors and teachers, Vice Chancellors, Chancellors, Directors and even the head the University Grants Commission (UGC), handpicked by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), with very little academic achievements and competence to occupy such high prestigious offices.
Look for instance at the replacement of Dharmendra Pradhan, Prahlad Joshi. Apart from his educational qualifications, which is not much to talk of, he shot into fame when he justified the garlanding and welcome, the BJP accorded in Gujarat to the convicted rapists of Bilkis Bano. Can he be trusted to weed out the corrupt and criminal education mafia which is operating with impudence throughout the country? This paper leak, year after year, of all the prestigious exams is not an accident. Its by design, operating through a network of mafia, under the patronage and protection of the Sangh. First, as the DMK alone rose to question the imposition of the NEET at all, except to enforce the stranglehold of the central government to manages the admission of young boys and girls to prestigious institutions and professional courses all over the country.
The Constitution has put Education in the Concurrent list. Thus, the Centre has only very remote limited powers largely to formulate education policy, that too with the concurrence of the states, in our federal structure, It can guide and manage only the central institutions like the IITs, IIMs or AIIMS not Regional Engineering colleges or state medical colleges. There the state used to and should be conducting its own admission tests. In the god old days when the Sangh tentacles had not spread wide, my sister appeared in the UP Central Pre-Medical Test (CPMT) and secured admission to the most prestigious of these the King George’s Medical College, Lucknow. Similarly, my wife a resident of Bombay then appeared in the AMU test for its Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College, qualified and secured admission. There was never any complaint of any irregularity or leaking of papers. There was a very distinguished professor in JNMC, AMU, (I don’t want to name him to save his embarrassment, if he may still be alive). His son tried a couple of times but failed. No heart burning no allegations. This national diktat to the states in matters of higher education is not merely to influence education policy, but as successive paper leaks have demonstrated is to infiltrate the select few enjoying patronage or the power of wealth and this trend is not likely to change by some cosmetic changes this government proposes.