How Gujarat youth are scammed by rigged recruitment exams year after year
Question papers for 11 exams got leaked since 2014, leaving hundreds of thousands of aspirants in the lurch. Whistleblower says "it's business, not corruption"
The leaks put on hold the lives of hundreds of thousands of aspirants and slowed down government functioning as vacancies in crucial jobs, such as of school teachers, piled up. Over the years, 201 accused were arrested and fast-track courts for trials promised. But as of today, no convictions have been made and most of the suspects are out on bail.
“They arrest the small pawns and let them go on bail,” alleges Yuvaraj Singh Jadeja, the whistleblower activist who has exposed nearly every major paper leak in the state over the past five years. “The masterminds—those organising this as a business rather than corruption—walk free.
The list of paper leaks has been lengthening. Consider this:
2017: TAT (Teacher's Aptitude Test) for 147,000 candidates was leaked on social media. The exam was cancelled.
2021: In the head clerk exam, some 88,000 candidates showed up. The paper allegedly sold for Rs 10-15 lakh at a printing press in Ahmedabad. The exam was cancelled and over 30 people were arrested.
2021: Exam for DGVCL vidyut sahayak (electrical assistant) was cancelled.
2022: In the forest guard exam, answers were leaked on WhatsApp. The police registered cases but the exam wasn’t cancelled.
2023: For the junior clerk exam, around 950,000 people applied for 1,181 posts. The paper leaked just five hours before the test. The exam was cancelled after whistleblower Jadeja held a press conference with ‘evidence’.
2023: Jadeja brought to light a scam in which a gang in Bhavnagar had been operating for years, charging money to place ‘dummy’ candidates in place of the applicants to write various government entrance exams.
Each time, hundreds of thousands of candidates were left in the limbo, waiting for the next date of examination, which sometimes comes years later.
The irregularities have been rampant despite The Gujarat Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2023, being passed by the legislative assembly in February 2023. The bill was introduced after the junior clerk examination question paper leak in January.
Yet, this has been seen as a reactive legislation passed after the scandal, not before. Moreover, the law targets punishment after the leak happens. It doesn't mandate preventive controls across printing, transportation or storage of question papers. By the time police investigate, candidates have already lost opportunities. Three years after the law passed, exam papers continue to be leaked.
According to data released in the state assembly in 2024, over 238,000 educated unemployed people were registered with the state government for seeking jobs. The reply presented in the assembly revealed in the past year, 32 had been employed in government jobs.
Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi, who has repeatedly highlighted the long-lasting impact of the examination crisis on young aspirants, says this number of educated unemployed youth significantly undermines the reality as this is only those people who have registered with the government. “Thousands of unemployed youth have had to undergo the expense, waste of time and emotional turmoil of taking exams. Instead of formulating useful schemes or policies for unemployed youth, the state government's failure to curb paper leaks and punish the guilty with political accountability is highly condemnable,” says Doshi.
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The leaks put on hold the lives of hundreds of thousands of aspirants and slowed down government functioning as vacancies in crucial jobs, such as of school teachers, piled up. Over the years, 201 accused were arrested and fast-track courts for trials promised. But as of today, no convictions have been made and most of the suspects are out on bail.
“They arrest the small pawns and let them go on bail,” alleges Yuvaraj Singh Jadeja, the whistleblower activist who has exposed nearly every major paper leak in the state over the past five years. “The masterminds—those organising this as a business rather than corruption—walk free.
The list of paper leaks has been lengthening. Consider this:
2017: TAT (Teacher's Aptitude Test) for 147,000 candidates was leaked on social media. The exam was cancelled.
2021: In the head clerk exam, some 88,000 candidates showed up. The paper allegedly sold for Rs 10-15 lakh at a printing press in Ahmedabad. The exam was cancelled and over 30 people were arrested.
2021: Exam for DGVCL vidyut sahayak (electrical assistant) was cancelled.
2022: In the forest guard exam, answers were leaked on WhatsApp. The police registered cases but the exam wasn’t cancelled.
2023: For the junior clerk exam, around 950,000 people applied for 1,181 posts. The paper leaked just five hours before the test. The exam was cancelled after whistleblower Jadeja held a press conference with ‘evidence’.
2023: Jadeja brought to light a scam in which a gang in Bhavnagar had been operating for years, charging money to place ‘dummy’ candidates in place of the applicants to write various government entrance exams.
Each time, hundreds of thousands of candidates were left in the limbo, waiting for the next date of examination, which sometimes comes years later.
The irregularities have been rampant despite The Gujarat Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2023, being passed by the legislative assembly in February 2023. The bill was introduced after the junior clerk examination question paper leak in January.
Yet, this has been seen as a reactive legislation passed after the scandal, not before. Moreover, the law targets punishment after the leak happens. It doesn't mandate preventive controls across printing, transportation or storage of question papers. By the time police investigate, candidates have already lost opportunities. Three years after the law passed, exam papers continue to be leaked.
According to data released in the state assembly in 2024, over 238,000 educated unemployed people were registered with the state government for seeking jobs. The reply presented in the assembly revealed in the past year, 32 had been employed in government jobs.
Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi, who has repeatedly highlighted the long-lasting impact of the examination crisis on young aspirants, says this number of educated unemployed youth significantly undermines the reality as this is only those people who have registered with the government. “Thousands of unemployed youth have had to undergo the expense, waste of time and emotional turmoil of taking exams. Instead of formulating useful schemes or policies for unemployed youth, the state government's failure to curb paper leaks and punish the guilty with political accountability is highly condemnable,” says Doshi.
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The leaks put on hold the lives of hundreds of thousands of aspirants and slowed down government functioning as vacancies in crucial jobs, such as of school teachers, piled up. Over the years, 201 accused were arrested and fast-track courts for trials promised. But as of today, no convictions have been made and most of the suspects are out on bail.
“They arrest the small pawns and let them go on bail,” alleges Yuvaraj Singh Jadeja, the whistleblower activist who has exposed nearly every major paper leak in the state over the past five years. “The masterminds—those organising this as a business rather than corruption—walk free.
The list of paper leaks has been lengthening. Consider this:
2017: TAT (Teacher's Aptitude Test) for 147,000 candidates was leaked on social media. The exam was cancelled.
2021: In the head clerk exam, some 88,000 candidates showed up. The paper allegedly sold for Rs 10-15 lakh at a printing press in Ahmedabad. The exam was cancelled and over 30 people were arrested.
2021: Exam for DGVCL vidyut sahayak (electrical assistant) was cancelled.
2022: In the forest guard exam, answers were leaked on WhatsApp. The police registered cases but the exam wasn’t cancelled.
2023: For the junior clerk exam, around 950,000 people applied for 1,181 posts. The paper leaked just five hours before the test. The exam was cancelled after whistleblower Jadeja held a press conference with ‘evidence’.
2023: Jadeja brought to light a scam in which a gang in Bhavnagar had been operating for years, charging money to place ‘dummy’ candidates in place of the applicants to write various government entrance exams.
Each time, hundreds of thousands of candidates were left in the limbo, waiting for the next date of examination, which sometimes comes years later.
The irregularities have been rampant despite The Gujarat Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2023, being passed by the legislative assembly in February 2023. The bill was introduced after the junior clerk examination question paper leak in January.
Yet, this has been seen as a reactive legislation passed after the scandal, not before. Moreover, the law targets punishment after the leak happens. It doesn't mandate preventive controls across printing, transportation or storage of question papers. By the time police investigate, candidates have already lost opportunities. Three years after the law passed, exam papers continue to be leaked.
According to data released in the state assembly in 2024, over 238,000 educated unemployed people were registered with the state government for seeking jobs. The reply presented in the assembly revealed in the past year, 32 had been employed in government jobs.
Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi, who has repeatedly highlighted the long-lasting impact of the examination crisis on young aspirants, says this number of educated unemployed youth significantly undermines the reality as this is only those people who have registered with the government. “Thousands of unemployed youth have had to undergo the expense, waste of time and emotional turmoil of taking exams. Instead of formulating useful schemes or policies for unemployed youth, the state government's failure to curb paper leaks and punish the guilty with political accountability is highly condemnable,” says Doshi.
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