Divya Kothari

1600 NE 47th Street

Seattle, WA 98105

kotharid@uw.edu

THE VYAPAM SCAM

This paper is about a high profile case embedded in the state of Madhya Pradesh in

central India, revolving around the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board

(“MPPEB/Board”) or Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (“Vyapam”), which is an autonomous and

self-financed body established by the State Government for conducting several entrance

examinations for positions such as medical students/officers, constables, teachers, forest guards,

and government departments1. The issue surfaced when it was found that candidates were

colluding with middle-men to clear the tests by bribing, without taking the exam. From what

earlier seemed benign, things soon turned morbid when 44 people died mysteriously.

India has been grappling with the matter of corruption since years. It is one of the

country’s most pervasive problems, penetrating through the layers of every sector including

education. Irregularities had been reported since the mid-1990s, but the first FIR was registered

in 2000, though the issue soon died down. 7 years later, a report by the Madhya Pradesh Local

Fund Audit office (2007-08) stated that it had found several financial and administrative

irregularities in the functioning of the MPPEB, for instance - unauthorized disposal of

application forms2. Suspicions soon arose that the application forms were destroyed on purpose

so that they could not be compared with exam admit cards and other records. In 2009, complaints

re-surfaced, this time in Pre-Medical Test (“PMT”)3. An activist in Indore,4 Anand Rai filed

1 “Vyapam Scam” Wikipedia. Accessed on 6th Feb 2016 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyapam_scam 2 Mishra, S. “Uncovering Vyapam: Does the buck really stop with the BJP and Chouhan” The News Minute. 6th July 2015.

Accessed 6th Feb 2016 from: http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/uncovering-vyapam-does-buck-really-stop-bjp-and-

chouhan-31892 3 Press Trust of India. “MP govt accuses Vyapam scam whistleblower of political affiliation” The Indian Express. 15th March

2015. Accessed on 7th Feb 2016 from: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/mp-govt-accuses-vyapam-scam-

whistleblower-of-political-affiliation/

a Public Interest Litigation (“PIL”) requesting investigation into the scam5. The Chief Minister

of Madhya Pradesh (“MP”) Shivraj Singh Chouhan instructed that a committee headed by the

State Joint-Director of Medical Education be set up to look into the veracity of these allegations6.

In November 2011, the committee submitted its report to the government, stating that of the 145

suspected candidates, 114 had cleared the exam by impersonation. Most of these candidates,

were from rich backgrounds and were impersonated by practicing doctors and medical students

that were top scorers and in need of money or some sort of cash equivalent. In fact, it was found

that some of these impersonators were even brought in from neighboring states of Uttar

Pradesh and Bihar. These middle men charged each candidate anywhere between ₹1-4 million.

Though not in much depth, but the report also mentioned the possibility of government officials

being involved in the scam.7 By then, it was clear that these cases were part of a much bigger

organized ring and in 2013, the matter finally came to light.

In July 2013, morning of the PMT exam, at the tip of a whistle-blower, a team of police-

men raided various motels in and on the outskirts of Indore and arrested 20 impersonators. Based

on their interrogation the Indore police discovered the kingpin of this huge impersonation ring

was. His arrest in turn, led to capturing Pankaj Trivedi, the examination controller of the

Professional Examination Board (“PEB”) in September 2013. Trivedi’s arrest opened a can of

worms. Exposing the monstrousness of the racket, Pankaj revealed that it was not confined to the

PMT exam alone; it involved rigging a number of recruitment exams conducted by the Board for

4 The largest city in MP, 200 kilometers from Bhopal which is the capital of the State 5 “Tests of your Patience” The Outlook. 1st June 2015. Accessed on 7th Feb 2016 from: http://www.outlookindia.com/article/tests-

of-your-patience/294386 6 Kartikeya, C. “42 dead: Why is Shivraj Chouhan not facing more heat in the Vyapam scam?” Catch News. 30th June 2015.

Accessed on 7th Feb 2016 from: http://www.catchnews.com/india-news/42-dead-why-is-shivraj-chouhan-not-facing-more-heat-

in-the-vyapam-scam-1435607494.html 7 Lall, L. “100 fake doctors? Madhya Pradesh hit by Munnabhai scam” The Times of India. 29th Dec 2011. Accessed on 7th

February 2016 from: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/100-fake-doctors-MP-hit-by-Munnabhai-

scam/articleshow/11285266.cms

the past several years. Pankaj named some of the key people involved and the scam unraveled at

breakneck speed leading the law enforcers to other figureheads – officers on special duty to the

governor and chief minister, Indian Administrative Service officers, Deputy Commissioner,

Inspector/Deputy Inspector General, police officers and many other public servants.8 More than

2000 people some way or the other, connected with the sham were taken into custody, majority

of them being students.

Initially trying to keep the matter under wraps, the efforts soon waned as the toll of

‘unnatural deaths’ kept on increasing and the State was forced to order the constitution of a

Special Task Force (“STF”). The official figure as reported by the State Government stands at 23

deaths, however unofficially the number claimed is 449. Indore actually happens to be my

hometown, and I remember vividly, waking up each morning to find headlines flashing at the

front page of all newspapers about the mysterious death of a person who ‘co-incidentally’

happened to be connected with this scam. Another indirect yet grave result of this scam is that

the fake candidates could be potential threats to the remaining populace of the country. Imagine

if your doctor, became a doctor just by virtue of having enough wealth to buy a degree.

The above-stated also represent the biggest control failures when it comes to people. First

of all, considering an institution of this scale and with so many organizations under its garb, the

Board was being run with the power concentrated in a mere handful of individuals. This will

become more prominent as you go on to read about the internal rigging control mechanisms.

Secondly, many of these post-holders were put to power by mere virtue of having personal

relations or financial leverage. Thus if bypassing the due process of law is made so easy, it will

inevitably lead to the breakdown of administrative machinery and in effect, the society. Thirdly,

8 Sethi, A. “The mystery of India’s deadly exam scam” The Guardian. 17 Dec 2015. Accessed 6th Feb 2015, from:

http://thewire.in/2015/07/01/vyapam-how-a-munnabhai-style-exam-scam-turned-into-a-macabre-thriller-5249/ 9 View Appendix at the end

the bureaucrats have over the years set such a fearful tone at the top, not allowing the STF to

identify and the media to publish - the actual causes of death for most of the victims. Fourthly,

due to the lack of initiative by people and discouraging attitude by the police this racket was

buried for years. Finally, had the State Government taken action and proper enforcement

measures at the right time, many of these deaths could have been prevented. The fact that an STF

was commissioned instead of the Central Bureau of Investigation (“CBI”) and that too much

later, itself raises many eyebrows.

As to the systemic and processes risks, apart from the impersonation tactic stated above,

there were two more schemes developed. One was the ‘engine-bogie’ system. Here, the seating

plans were devised as such, that a top-scorer would sit between two poor students, supplying

them with answers. Sometimes the invigilators were told to turn a blind eye, to facilitate this

process of cheating. The second strategy was far more ingenious. In this, the students paying to

clear their exam were asked to intentionally leave their answer-sheet blank, so that they could be

randomly assigned marks and on the pretense of having filed an RTI application, obtain this

blank answer-sheet and enter the right answers before getting caught. On some occasions if the

student marked answers incorrectly, correction-glue was used to remove and re-enter the right

options. A glaring control failure here is the lack of proper supervision (both technical, and in-

person) and a strict hierarchy-based approval process for each step, right from distributing

answer-sheets to collecting, vetting, grading, re-checking and releasing them.

Without a proper system of checks and balances, a corruption case can go haywire. The sad

truth is that the hapless stakeholders, in this case deserving candidates and meritorious students,

are the ones to suffer. In order to prevent such a scam from repeating itself, I would like to

propose the following plan of action:

Similar to the four levels of risk management proposed for the National Transportation

Board, based on the importance of risk, develop a dynamic movement between the Enterprise

(MPPEB), Program (Department – Medical, Engineering, etc.), Project (Examination) and

Activity (Conducting the examination). Each level has a hierarchy based approval check-

point and resorts to periodic reporting to facilitate effective communication10.

Increase transparency and accountability by subjecting itself to regular audits. This should

also be inbuilt with a two-way feedback mechanism to prevent the higher-ups from

controlling the subordinates all the time.

As University of Washington Professor Annie Searle puts it “people are at the heart of

operational risk management, whether policies and programs are in effect or not.”11

Corruption scandals especially, boil down to the issue of ethical misconduct. As Searle

suggests, whether by encouraging employees to do the ‘right’ thing, creating a code of

organizational values or developing a plan to combat fraud or unethical behavior, it is imperative

to “create a climate for your team to ensure that members are not afraid to give you bad news.”12

In the 2014 general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party power at the center, promising to

root out corruption and propogating this slogan - ‘Acche Din Aane Waale Hain’ (The good days

are coming soon). Until this murky, multi-faceted and manipulative exam scam concludes,

clearly the people are yet to see those good days as promised by the BJP. As India witnesses this

a suspense/thriller as if right out of a movie, the scary part is, that this episode hasn’t ended yet.

10 Gordon Proctor & Associates, The StarIsis Corporation & Jeff Roorda and Associates, Inc. “Managing Risk across the

Enterprise: Quick Guide for State Departments of Transportation” Transportation Research Board of the National Academies

21st May 2015. Accessed 8th Feb 2016. 11 Searle, A. "Ethical Misconduct: Is It Your Greatest Risk? November 2012. Accessed 8th Feb, 2016 from:

http://anniesearle.com/web-services/Documents/Articles/AnnieSearle_TheRiskUniverse_Ethicalmisconduct-

Isityourbiggestrisk_November2012.pdf 12 Supra

APPENDIX13

13 Tiwari, D. “The Death Test” The Week. 19th July 2015. Accessed on 8th Feb 2016 from:

http://www.theweek.in/theweek/cover/the-death-test.html