‘chota Vyapam’?

Is AMU’s med test row a ‘chota Vyapam’?

Eram Agha,TNN | Jul 9, 2015, 10.19 PM IST
ALIGARH: Aligarh Muslim University's fip-flop over MBBS/BDS 2015-16 entrance tests — announcement of two inquiries, date for retest and reverting to existing results — has made the Teachers' Association (AMUTA) smell a rat. Suspecting it to be a 'chota Vyapam' in the making after Madhya Pradesh's recruitment scam, AMU teachers' body adopted a resolution in the executive committee meeting calling for "a CBI inquiry, filing of an FIR, uploading both reports for public scrutiny, and removal of the Controller of Examination Javaid Akhter till the probe is over".

How is it possible to first take a decision cancelling the MBBS/BDS test, ordering a retest after finding anomalies, postponing the announcement of a firm date, and then suddenly restoring the earlier result, AMUTA has asked. The entrance test results aroused suspicions when 30 people qualified from one particular centre at Kozhikode in Kerala.

Ashraf Mateen, joint secretary, AMUTA said, "Everything is so opaque that it appears to be our 'chhota Vyapam', I sent complains on our networking site — AMU Network — demanding that both inquiry reports should be made public but the moderator has not approved."

AMUTA has decided to intensify its agitation and approach the President, Prime Minister, the minister of human resource development, union home minister, chairman of UGC and chairman of Medical Council of India to apprise them of the gravity of the matter and to seek their intervention.

Secretary of AMUTA Mustafa Zaidi said, "The norms of administrative propriety were hardly considered in this probe — we will take this matter to the Centre."

The first decision of cancelling AMU MBBS/BDS test was taken on May 23 on the grounds that it defied the law of averages with 30 people qualifying from one particular centre at Kozhikode. It sparked suspicion in the controller of examination and he brought to the notice of vice-chancellor Lt Gen Zameer Uddin Shah on May 20.

Akhter said, "If I was wrong, I would not have brought this to his (VC) notice I was vigilant. The second inquiry report says that there was no foul play in the Kozhikode centre, and has asked university for formulations of guidelines for conduct of examinations. I had also declared that the retest will be held in first week of August."

The preliminary inquiry committee concluded in its report, "Even though no formal complaint has been received regarding the conduct of the MBBS/BDS entrance test from any of the locations, prima facie there is evidence of a very unusual and unprecedented trend, where a single location (Kozhikode) will be apparently contributing more than 50% of successful candidates for the admission to the MBBS/BDS programme 2015-16. This seems to clearly defy logic, common sense, statistics and law of averages."

The executive council cancelled the test and the retest was announced on May 29 along with the formation of another committee (non-judicial) headed by a retired Allahabad high court judge, Justice Imtiaz Murtaza. This committee gave Kozhikode centre a clean chit, saying "no foul play" was detected and asked the university to give a letter of appreciation to Kozhikode for conducting a fair examination.

The detailed inquiry report also expressed that the bulk of successful candidates had secured exceedingly high percentages in their senior secondary examinations and most of them had also qualified for the KEAM (Kerala Engineering and Medical) examination.

The AMUTA teachers have questioned, "Is that the reason why so many qualified AMU MBBS/BDS exam?"

Zaidi said, "Doubts of the intention of the university surfaced when no firm date for the retest was announced nor was there any preparation for holding of the test, the deputy controller came out with a notice that the date of the test would be decided after the submission of the inquiry report."

The decision is not legally tenable as according to the university statutes and Act for all academic matters, including admissions and examinations, the academic council is the supreme body and the executive council can only act after consideration of the AC's opinion. "The university administration also did not place this report before the AC, so legally the decision is not tenable," Zaidi said.