New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday (June 29) said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had close links with the Jay Jalaram International school in Godhra which has emerged as one of the examination centres involved in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) scam, arguing that a tainted institution cannot be designated for such an important national test without political patronage.
Paper leaks and recruitment scams were among the key issues in the last parliamentary election. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said 70 incidents of paper leaks had been reported in the last seven years. The Congress has demanded a debate on the NEET scam in parliament, with Rahul Gandhi describing it as destruction of careers of millions of students but the ruling BJP said no other subject can be taken up before the motion of thanks to the President’s address.
On Saturday, Gujarat Congress chief and Rajya Sabha member Shaktisinh Gohil said at a press conference in Delhi that Jay Jalaram Trust was not only giving donations to the BJP but its owners had close links with the BJP leaders too. He released photographs showing former Union minister Smriti Irani visiting Godhra to inaugurate one of the trust’s schools, along with Uttar Pradesh governor Anandiben Patel and state education minister Bhupendra Chudasma. Another photograph showed the Jalaram trust chairman Dixit Patel handing over a cheque to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a public function. Some other photographs showed Jay Jalaram chairman with other BJP leaders and state ministers and former chief minister Vijay Rupani.
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Gohil said the Deputy Superintendent of Police of Godhra N.V. Patel has filed an affidavit in the Godhra Sessions Court detailing how the Jay Jalaram International School was involved in rigging the NEET examination by taking money from students from different states. He said the very fact that students from Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Maharashtra were opting for an examination centre in Godhra should have caused suspicion and triggered precautionary measures but nobody noticed this obvious anomaly. Godhra didn’t even have an airport but students living over a thousand kilometres away preferred the Jay Jalaram school because they were told to do so. The Jay Jalaram trust, which had previously been fined by the High Court for engaging in fraudulent activities, was allowed to operate two centers in violation of guidelines, despite its tainted reputation, Gohil added.
The Congress leader called for an investigation into how the National Testing Agency (NTA) granted two centers to Jay Jalaram International School, an institution with a history of fraudulent activities, questioning the agency’s decision-making process. Gujarat Police have arrested two individuals, Tushar Rajnikant Patel, a professor at Jay Jalaram International School, and Purushottam Prasad, who served as both the principal of the school and the city coordinator for the NEET exam.
Gohil underlined that Arif Vohra, the third individual in custody, had solicited advance payments and blank cheques from parents of students, and notably, had held the position of vice president of the Gujarat BJP Minority Morcha. Although Arif has since been suspended from the party, Gohil presented multiple photographs featuring prominent BJP leaders alongside him, including an image of Arif being honored at the state office in Ahmedabad. The investigation has now been transferred to the CBI, following the Gujarat Police’s initial probe. The Gujarat Police has now handed over the probe to the CBI.
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At the press conference, Gohil said, “Now you know why the Jay Jalaram education trust got two NEET exam centres. It regularly donated to the BJP. This is the true chal charitra (character) and chehra (face) of the BJP. Despite full knowledge of the modus operandi – the affidavit filed by the DSP and CCTV footage – the Central government lied to the Supreme Court that no irregularity happened in the NEET exam. This is contempt of court. Why did the Modi government lie to the Supreme Court? When the DSP files an affidavit in court detailing the entire scam, the Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan lies to the nation, denying irregularity in the NEET exam? Why is the Prime Minister silent? Who helped in allocation of NEET centres to Jay Jalaram trust? Why are only small fish being targeted while the sharks are roaming free? Why has the Jay Jalaram chairman not been arrested? I have information that Jay Jalaram got many other important examination centres. Let the Government disclose the entire list. The BJP too should disclose how much donations it got from Jay Jalaram education trust.”
The affidavit Gohil referred to explained how students were instructed to choose the Jay Jalaram centre, answer questions they knew and leave other questions blank, which experts filled in later. The examination centres are supposed to send the papers by courier soon after the examination. But experts answered questions for the selected students, from whom money was already taken, and many of them got 100% marks.
