NEW DELHI: Students here took to the streets today to protest the CBSE’s decision to hold re-examination of Class 10 Mathematics and Class 12 Economics papers, even as the Congress demanded that Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar and the board chairperson be sacked.
Amid massive protests over the paper leaks issue, Congress president Rahul Gandhi targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, going into rhyme, saying “in everything there is a leak, the ‘chowkidar’ is weak”.
Javadekar, however, puts up a brave and said the culprits will not go scot-free. He termed the issue as unfortunate.
The BJP rejected Rahul Gandhi’s charge, saying the Congress president was referring to the UPA rule.
“Rahul Gandhi is remembering his days,” Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a Cabinet briefing.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that the party demands that HRD Minister Javadekar and CBSE Chairperson Anita Karwal be sacked and a judicial probe by a high court judge be ordered into the matter.
The Delhi Police, which had registered two cases in connection with the leaks, started questioning the owner of a coaching centre in Rajinder Nagar whose name was shared by the CBSE in its complaint and is suspected to be behind the alleged leak.
The office of the CBSE had received an unaddressed envelope on March 26 containing four sheets of handwritten answers of the Class 12 Economics paper, the board said in its complaint to the Delhi Police.
In its complaint to the police, the Board has said that they received a complaint by fax on March 23 from an “unknown source” that a man running a coaching institute in Rajinder Nagar was involved in paper leakage.
Meanwhile, cries of ‘we want justice’ resonated at Jantar Mantar as students gathered there this morning to protest the re-examination of Class 10 Mathematics and Class 12 Economics papers.
Holding placards and shouting slogans such as ‘stop playing hit and trial with our lives’ and ‘It’s not the students who need a re-test, it’s the system’, students rued how they have been left “traumatized” after hearing the news of re-examination.
Many of the students claimed that almost all the papers were leaked a day before the examinations, and demanded that if a re-examination is to be held, it should be held of all the subjects.
Bhavika Yadav, a Class 10 student of St Thomas School, said, “We were shocked after hearing the news of the re-examination. Why should we suffer just because a handful of students got the leaked paper before the examination?”
Gandhi, taking to Twitter to attack the government, also used the hashtag #BasEkAurSaal, a reference to the government being left with one year of its term.
Javadekar said that the CBSE will declare the date of re-examination probably on Monday or Tuesday.
“This (paper leak) has been a breach by the culprits and we will not let go any culprit scot-free. The police are on the job and I am very sure, they will nab the culprit as they have done in case of the SSC exam leak case. We have also instituted an internal inquiry, he told reporters here.
Noting that being a sensible parent, he could not sleep last night, Javadekar said he could understand the pain, anguish and frustrations of students and parents because we are one of them. PTI
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