SSC Aspirants Demand CBI Probe into Question Paper Leak

Demanding a CBI probe into the alleged question paper leak of the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) examination, thousands of candidates are protesting for the fifth consecutive day since 27 February in front of the SSC headquarters at Lodhi Road in Delhi. The paper of Combined Graduate Level (CGL) Tier 2 was allegedly leaked.

The protesting students are being joined by teachers from the coaching institutes located in Delhi.

While politicians including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor extended their support to the raging students, there were reports that anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare is likely to join the protesting students.

“The central government must immediately constitute a CBI inquiry into the issue since the future of thousands of students is dependent on this”, Kejriwal tweeted on 2 March.

Earlier SSC board had notified that it will conduct the tier 2 examination from 17 February to 21 February for which 1, 89,843 candidates were qualified to appear. However, on 21 February, when screenshots of the question paper circulated in the social media, SSC canceled the exam on that day stating “technical reasons” and rescheduled it on 9 March.

Since 2017, SSC has been conducting CGL exam in online mode, a shift from its earlier OMR sheet model. The competitive exam is conducted every year in order to select non-gazetted officers in various governmental departments, for which lakhs of students appear hoping to get a secure government job.

On 1 March, SSC officials met the protesting students and said that the CBI inquiry will only be initiated if any “substantial evidence” of question paper leakage is submitted.

Earlier SSC Chairman Khurana reportedly claimed that the ongoing protests are being sponsored by two coaching centres with “vested interests”.

While the protests are getting intensified with more students joining the agitation in front of the SSC headquarters, many other students have taken their fight for justice to social media. On the other side, as an attempt to disperse the protesting students, Delhi Police has shut down outlets selling food and water, toilets in the vicinity have been closed and the nearby metro services are stopped.

Students from across the country are using hashtags such as #sscscam, #sscexamscam, #boycottbjp, #naukri_ke_dalal and so on using their Twitter and Facebook handles and registering their solidarity with the protesting candidates.