While there is no need to be alarmist and apprehend national security being compromised, the sale of a question paper for an Army recruitment examination cannot be seen as just another “leak”, several scary queries do arise. It would be unfair and premature to automatically perceive the involvement of senior or middle-level defence personnel in the scam, but there is cause to doubt the functioning of the Army Recruitment Board after its paper went on sale in several towns in Maharashtra and Goa.

The scrapping of the examination in nine centres would be little more than administering first-aid, and the arrest of 18 people for selling the paper perhaps slightly more authoritative action, but the fact that it was the police that first detected the scam does not speak highly of the way the ARB was doing things.

A high-level inquiry has been ordered, it must be pursued diligently and those involved must be made to pay ~ for how widespread is the racket, and whether it extends to other examinations conducted by the ARB needs thorough investigation. It would appear unlikely that what happened in Pune, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Nagpur and Goa over the weekend, was a one-off affair. That some students were alleged to be “answering” papers in a bar in Goa suggests a degree of the brazen, and the involvement of those infamous “coaching centres”. There is every need to follow up the observation of the police officer leading the investigation that “Our preliminary finding is that the entire leakage took place within a span of eight to nine hours. The question papers were leaked through WhatsApp ~ for it testifies to an organised racket.

What is as worrying as the leak itself is the police suspecting that some 350 persons taking the examination paid well over Rs 200, 000 each to procure the test paper. A willingness to part with that amount indicates a firm belief that there was a considerably larger amount to be “made” if selected as a solider-clerk, or equivalent appointment ~ nobody pays in lakhs to secure only a salaried job. Such hopes for opportunity to “recover” that kind of “investment” are commonly entertained by persons seeking recruitment in local police forces: has corruption in the Army also become so rampant?
This is where the Army, at its highest levels, must step in.

What do unscrupulous personnel do to thus line their pockets? Can they “wangle” so much by manipulating accounts, stores and supplies? Or is that where “dealing” in matters pertaining to operational security, etc., becomes highly profitable? The Army commands the respect of the citizen for its efficiency and integrity, the leak of question papers for a recruitment test can negate that image.