When one starts to think of the examination scams rocking our country at this movement; whether it is the NEET question paper leak or the CBSE valuation issue, it reminds us of a famous Hindi movie scene in which Akshay Kumar comes and narrates the answers through microphone for students to write the answers. I use the word us here because when it comes the future of our students and future of India, there should be no I, me, mine or myself; only we, us, ours and ourselves. So, not deviating from the subject, what is really wrong with all this? One word comes to mind at the forefront: Institution. Everything under the flag of a country is an institution; be it executive, legislature or judiciary. We should add one more institution to this that is “Corruption.” One tends to realize the most organized sector in our country is corruption sector. We should also remind ourselves that this a country where our prime minister conducts a “Pariksha Pe Charcha” every year. So, how careful and concerned should the institutions that are conducting the exams should be I leave it to everyone’s discretion.

Let us look at the NEET exam shambles. We Indians are famously known for our “jugaad.” It is mainly a north Indian term which means we are able to find makeshift solutions and produce results out of that. Here what happened obviously is some of the coaching centres across India and mind you here there is no North South divide; doctors, even a head of the school and obviously students would have been involved and we do not want to speculate about that as the investigation is ongoing decided to go the jugaad way and the result of it; 2.5 million students are in dark about their future as the affected examination was cancelled by NTA and re-examination has been ordered. Here is where we should think about the institutional corruption that is rampant in our country. A nexus was formed from Haryana to Rajasthan to Kerala and several other places and question papers were sold for huge sums of money amounting up to 15 lakhs per student. Who is to be blamed in all of this fiasco? Obviously the answer will be the examination conducting body which is the NTA, but are they to be blamed alone in this? There is a term called civic sense which every citizen should maintain in his or her country every time. This sense comes to you from a very young age like not throwing waste outside, standing in queue and the list goes on. But unfortunately in India that sense is close to zero in most of us. You may ask what is it go to do with the examination scam here. The answer is simple; every one of us would have tried to break the law at least once in our lifetime be it jumping the red light at a signal and giving a small amount of bribery to get something done for us. So, where does the “Lakshman Rekha” gets drawn regarding corruption. The answer is nowhere as every government organization in our country is the victim of an institutionalized corruption method that has been going on for decades. We have been a free country for more than 75 years and I understand we have a complex culture as every 50 to 100 kilometers our language change, our food habits change, our way of dressing change, but we are very much united in our corrupt practices.

We mostly see politicians as corrupt figures in our country, but if politicians are the known faces of corruption, there is a hidden face behind all these and they are the bureaucrats or “babus” as they are called fondly. And is our media which is known as the fourth pillar of democracy trying to find out what is happening around our country before a scam or corruption story breaks out. The answer will be a sad no as the mainstream media now fondly called “godi media” is busy projecting our country as the best thing that is happening around in a volatile world. And if we go to the alternate media; there also favouritism or planted news comes to the fore. Here one thing is for sure; either you are with the system or out of the system entirely. There is no middle path. If one questions the authority; he or she is branded an antinational or if it comes to a state an anti-state propagator. We are at this time driven by nationalism, religionism and regionalism. Nobody gives a heed to “SLR” thinking or scientific, logical or rational thinking if I may call it anymore. We are very quick to pronounce a verdict and pass the judgment that someone is guilty or not. Our media has tuned our eyes and ears for years like that. We have a Vaibhav Suryavanshi who is hailed as a national hero at the age of 15 and rightly so, but the same media has many questions for Vedant Shrivastava whose answer sheet got mixed up in the CBSE OSM marking system. Why is this double standard being followed, the answer is simple; to protect the institution and the corruption practices guiding it. We should proudly project Sarthak Sidhant; the 17-year-old who through his research found out more than 15 flaws in the tendering system to favour a firm regarding the OSM valuation process. So, as Indians are we following double standards as we are ready to celebrate a 15-year-old cricketing prodigy and rightly so, but reluctant to celebrate a 17-year-old who goes in front of the parliamentary standing committee to give evidence regarding an examination scam.Is there a solution for all of this, maybe; but it will be a long and arduous one. The youth of this country is getting frustrated and losing patience day by day as it is clearly evident from the fact that what started as a satiric movement after none other than the esteemed Chief Justice of India called the youth cockroaches has garnered more followers on social media within a few days more than that of the grand old party of India and the current ruling party in India. What this tends to tell us is that the youth of this country is waiting and looking for an opportunity to break the system and come out of this institutionalized corruption model that is prevailing in our country for far too long. Everyone needs to take a pause here and introspect for a moment and ponder very carefully what sort of a future are we going to provide our youth; the Gen Z or the Gen Alpha as they are known popularly or unpopularly depending on the age group you are in. After all there is this myth of “cockroach apocalypse” as they will the sole survivors after a nuclear disaster. So beware of the youth of this country; deep down they are very frustrated, but at the same time ready to bide their time and follow the rules and bring about a change that will change the fortune of our complex yet great nation, India as we all proudly call it.