“Don’t toy with the future of 70 lakh hardworking students,” said senior AAP leader and father of Delhi’s education revolution, Manish Sisodia, slamming the Centre over massive irregularities in Staff Selection Commission (SSC) exams. After meeting teachers who prepare students for SSC, he made two urgent demands — first, the upcoming SSC-CGL exam scheduled from 13 August with over 30 lakh aspirants must be postponed immediately; second, previously held exams conducted by tainted companies must be cancelled and re-conducted.
Calling out the Modi government for handing over national exams to companies already accused of major scams, Manish Sisodia said, “The BJP must stop treating India’s youth like the Opposition — they’re simply asking for the rightful jobs they’ve worked hard for.”
Senior AAP leader and former Delhi Education Minister, Manish Sisodia, stated, “Our education system is so weak that even after years of schooling and college, students need high-level coaching just to catch up. Only then are they able to study properly. This reflects how poor the quality of education is in our schools and colleges.”
Highlighting the consequences of this systemic failure, he said, “And what happens to these students after all that? What we’ve seen across the country in the past 15 days is enough to make the nation’s soul weep. The company hired by the central government to conduct SSC exams, I’ve been told, is the same one involved in the Vyapam scam. They’ve committed Vyapam-like frauds again — in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and elsewhere — and yet they’ve been given the responsibility of conducting SSC exams nationwide.”
Explaining the scale of the exams, he said, “SSC conducts several different exams — general exams, Stenographer, CGL and others. As of now, around 70 lakh students are candidates in these various SSC exams. They prepare for 2–3 years, and then finally get a date. But this company has taken a contract not to conduct exams — but to ruin the careers of 70 lakh students.”
Exposing shocking exam conditions, Manish Sisodia added, “Exam centres are being set up in bizarre locations — we’ve seen videos of centres inside cow sheds, in private homes. Just today I saw a video from Ghaziabad. In an SSC exam held recently, the same company made a candidate act as an invigilator. Imagine — a student comes to give the exam, and is told to invigilate his own exam room. What kind of joke is this?”
He further added, “The company being favoured by the central government is utterly unqualified. If you’re conducting exams for 70 lakh students, why not hire one of the world’s best testing companies? Not necessarily TCS, but any competent company. Instead, this company lacks even basic infrastructure. We’ve seen student complaints where even the mouse at the centre didn’t work. Centres are being placed 500–700 km away. Poor students — children of farmers and labourers — who dream of these jobs, are being asked to pay coaching fees and then travel across the country just to appear for the exam.”
The senior AAP leader continued, “This is a planned sabotage. Jaipur students are being told to go to Andaman, Bihar’s to Kerala, Punjab’s to Tamil Nadu. First you ruin the infrastructure, then you shift centres thousands of kilometres away. And there’s an even bigger joke than these lapses.”
Calling out the absurdity of the exam questions, Manish Sisodia said that just look at the kind of questions this scam-tainted company is asking. One sample question: ‘A man walks 10 metres east, then turns left and walks 10 metres. Which direction is he facing now?’ But the options provided? ‘All cats are dogs,’ ‘Some dogs are cats,’ ‘All birds are cats,’ ‘Some cats are dogs.’ What is a student supposed to select — East, West, North, or South? Where did cats and dogs come from?”
Citing more examples, he said, “Another question asked, ‘Which article of the Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of speech?’ Instead of articles like 9, 10, 11 or 21, the options given were — oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen. How can a student choose? What kind of people are setting these papers? From which planet has this company come, where clicking on ‘oxygen’ will somehow mean you’ve chosen the correct article of the Constitution?”
Sharing further, Manish Sisodia said, “One question was: If the price of 5 erasers is ₹1, then what is the price of 10 pens? No logic. These are just a few examples — the teachers have shown me many such questions. Most of the exam paper is full of such nonsense. Is this stupidity, corruption, mismanagement, or just a deliberate fraud?”
He asked pointedly, “Are we trying to show the world that we don’t even understand how to conduct exams for 70–80 lakh students? What are we doing? I fold my hands before the central government and urge — whatever your political agenda may be, please don’t play with the future of 70 lakh children.”
Describing the hardship of these students, he said, “Some of them are children of labourers who paid coaching fees with their father’s daily wages. Some are children of farmers, some earned money teaching tuitions. These are hardworking youth. Don’t destroy their future — conduct their exams properly.”
Making two clear demands, Manish Sisodia said, “First, the SSC exam scheduled from the 13th — which will have around 30 lakh students appearing for the CGL exam — must be postponed immediately. Cancel the contract with this incompetent company and bring in a capable one. Students have waited this long; they can wait a bit more. But taking an exam in a cowshed, using broken mice, answering garbage questions — that won’t secure their future.”
He continued, “If this is how you conduct exams, what kind of candidates will you get to work in government? Postpone this exam. Whatever business or political ties you have with this company — set them aside. Cancel this exam and bring in a company that is actually competent. India in the 21st century has some of the world’s best professional firms — pick any of them. Give the responsibility to a company that can conduct these exams intelligently and with proper facilities.”
Demanding fairness for already-conducted exams, he added, “Second — for those exams already conducted under this company, where students raised genuine objections but were beaten instead of being heard — cancel those too and conduct them again.”
Urging the government to not treat protesting students like political opponents, Manish Sisodia concluded, “I hope you will not behave with them the way you treat Opposition parties. These are teachers, these are students — the youth of our country. They are not members of any political opposition. They didn’t come to protest; they came to apply for a government job. They appeared for exams under the rights granted by the Constitution. They just want a fair shot at employment. Give them that. Conduct their exams fairly and responsibly.”
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