When HoD took blame for paper leak

Gurinder Singh

We were discussing the moral and systemic failure with regard to the recent CBSE paper leak, when a friend narrated her experience while she was pursuing graduation in 1981.

Pushpa was the only female student in the batch and was one of the brightest too. But even she found zoology tough. She often had nightmares when it came to that examination. She relied on cramming where she could not understand. A booster dose of dahi-chini and prayers before leaving for the test made her a perfect examination warrior. 

A day before the examination, a student managed to steal a copy of the question paper. He showed it to his friends, and by morning, all the boys knew the paper while Pushpa was still revising her notes and reciting Hanuman Chalisa. Out of sheer pity or generosity, a boy gave her the paper a few minutes before the examination. She dismissed it as a usual prank played by boys, but kept the paper and went into the examination hall. Lo and behold, it was the same paper! Pushpa was furious that the boys had an unfair advantage over her. Instead of writing the answers, she wrote a long letter on the answer sheet to Dr Pathak, the Head of the Department (HoD), who incidentally was the paper-setter and the examiner.

When Dr Pathak learnt about the leak, he informed the Dean about his own failure, even though he had the option of hushing up the matter. He requested for a thorough inquiry against his own lapse. Within hours, it emerged that a student had stolen a copy of the paper when Ramsewak, the laboratory assistant who was responsible for cyclostyling (there were no printers then), had left the question papers unattended for few moments. An anguished HoD only managed to say, “Bhai Ramsewak ab yeh bhi mujhe hi dekhna padega?”

Dr Pathak owned up entire responsibility for the paper leak and requested the inquiry committee and the Dean to pronounce the punishment. 

The Dean, his batchmate, wanted to apportion the blame on the student responsible for the theft of the paper. But the HoD prevailed upon everyone that he alone was negligent. With dignity, Dr Pathak accepted the award of loss of a pay increment and removal from the position of HoD. 

Pushpa had to suffer the wrath of male students, but the lone girl remained defiant. A month later, during the annual convocation, the Vice-Chancellor publicly acknowledged Dr Pathak’s courage of conviction.

Times have changed. The boys of 1981 batch have moved on: they are deans, HoDs, Vice-Chancellors and Chairpersons of education boards. Stealing a question paper from unsuspecting Ramsewak is passé in this age of technology. And the law takes its own course.