Fake Degree-Organized Racket Defaming Indian Education Standard
By Mousumi Roy
17 June, 2015
Countercurrents.org
Indian scholars have created impressive presence globally in various fields over the years. Be it Fine Arts, Literature, Academics, Economics, Socio-Political Science, Financial, Science and Technology, Medical Science or Corporate Affairs Management, the contributions and achievements are well regarded across the globe. This is brighter side of our learning system which helped producing large number of individuals whose contributions and works made them well recognized and renowned both within the country and overseas. On the other hand, failure in controlling various malpractices, cheating, dubious acts, fraudulence and inability in creating skill and need based education system, has proved its ineffectiveness.
Tendency of cheating, embracing to malpractice by students are not unknown, uncommon for India. In fact, this phenomenon is present in many countries in different forms and varied extent. However, increasing trend in mass copying, cheating in more recent times, particularly in some parts of the country, are matter of concerns and causing serious damages. Forged Mark Sheets, Fake Degree Certificates established their presence in our education system for quite long time. Many foreign countries, therefore, adopted stringent rules of authentication, verification of qualification certificates claimed by Indian job seekers in their countries. But in domestic job market, the organized racket continued its operation more freely to make quick buck to meet high demands and needs of dishonest people, by exploiting improper checks and loopholes in our verification system. Political influences and supports have added to this grey area of illegal business.
Recent arrest of Law Minister, Jitendra Singh Tomar, of present Delhi local government has added to new dimension, to show the extent and level this organized racket is operating in our country. In lighter side, this episode has become talking point as “Munna Bhai LLB”. He claims doing his Graduation (B.Sc) from Avadh University, Faizabad and Law Degree (LLB) from Tilak Manjhi Bhagalpur University. But both certificates are considered to be fake and presently being investigated. It is shocking that such a dubious person managed to practice profession of law for past a few years. He is not only involved in active politics but got elected as MLA and thereafter even made Law Minister in local government of Delhi, through fullest support of his party and the party chief of AAP. The irony is, the AAP (Aam Admi Party) which claims to be in politics to eradicate corruption, always vows to honesty and integrity of their leaders, always complain through rallies and media speeches by alleging other political leaders, businessmen are corrupt. It appears, only handful of their party leaders are the most honest who have entered politics to clear the system. The party also claims that full proof system is in place, due diligence and scrutiny process are followed prior to allocating party membership. But in reality these claims cannot be substantiated through facts as many incidents have come out in public domain for a party who is politics for such a short period. The manner in which the party agitated, protested against the arrest of Tomar and continued to support him after the arrest, once again raises big question mark about their claims of value based politics, they always talk about.
The important aspect is, the investigation process is on and it must be carried out to find the organized racket behind such acts of forgery and illegal practices. Such fraudulent documents cannot be generated by an individual alone, a large gang or racket is often involved to carry out such operation. These racketeers are to be found out, all of them are to be brought to book and punished. If this is done, it will do lots of good for our education system. It may be termed as too late actions, but this initiative will certainly help and can be viewed as some measure of damage control efforts. This will create impression about our seriousness to clean up fraudulent practices in our education system. It is through such action, we may be able to re-establish faith on our education system, trust and authenticity of our educational certificates produced by job seekers in domestic and overseas job market as well.
India was once known for destination for knowledge. Our education system attracted people from other nations in olden days. We may have lost that glory. However, through some serious efforts, through some corrective actions, we can make our education system be more “Localized” for India, more “Relevant” for our need of “Skill Development” program for the country itself. Simultaneously we can rebuild faith and trust of our education system in overseas and thereby claim authenticity and target meeting world demand by utilizing our talent and vast pool of present demographic dividend the country possess.
Mousumi Roy is an Author, writer- and is a visiting professor of International Relations.
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