Why Vyapam is anything but a political scam

India's fascination with safe and secure "government" jobs is well known. And over the years fake recruitments have invariably led to muddying the process. Whatever system is put into place, barring perhaps the central services exam, it is quickly corrupted, because education is poor, jobs are few and our values need urgent correction.

The latest scandal, in fact, is just a further indictment of our moral universe, where young people, junking idealism, opt to cheat and "pay" their way to a government placement. Only, instead of a straightforward purchase across the counter, an elaborate facade has to be set up, so that all the paperwork "appears" authentic. This cynical manipulation has completely devalued our education system. But it is only now, with the shocking death of an investigative journalist, that all the murky aspects of this parallel universe have been thrown into sharp relief.

However, I disagree with my media friends who say that the corruption and alleged deaths related to the Vyavsayak Pariksha Mandal (Vyapam) is part of a "political" scam. While this scandal does point to the rise of an all encompassing education and recruitment mafia, it also, and more aggressively, demonstrates a sharp and simultaneous decline in our ethics. Only then could a gang so seamlessly infiltrate and subvert the examination and recruitment system over such a long period of time.

Just like the drug or the liquor mafia, these gangs prey on declining social and familial values. In the Vyapam cases, for instance, (apart from the whistle blowers) no one seemed to hesitate over the issue of cheating; even parents desperately collected money for fake qualifications for their poorly educated progeny, leading eventually to a job which would further generate a dubious income.

Yet, the guilt or remorse, if any, should now be borne by all those associated with the students who are being indicted or caught... Parents, teachers, middlemen, as well as medical and educational institutions. In fact, there is no clear criminal to nab, but far too many appear complicit. These students and job seekers were let down by everyone because no one taught them, or bothered to convince them, that cheating was dishonest.

This is not a political scam, like the coal scam, or the 2G scam in which politicians allegedly lined their pockets directly through bribes. This, on the contrary, is the story of desperate middle class parents and students, an "education" mafia willing and ready to exploit them, as well as examiners who were happy to accept money to give false validation, and so on. And perhaps, on the top of the food chain, sat a few politicians and their friends. Between them they have turned our society into one where honesty and hardwork are meaningless.

This educational mess has been probably flourishing for years, and, as is already spilling out into the media, not restricted to Madhya Pradesh, and might have links in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere.

We need therefore to have a thorough and quiet investigation to understand how this "recruitment" corruption became such a hydra-headed monster. But more than anything else, we must also introspect why cheating has become a way of life for so many young people.

This is not a political scam. This is collective immorality.