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A scheduled caste student, who raised the issue of discrimination against reserved category students at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, has alleged that he has been 'intentionally failed' in the final MBBS examination as he spoke about authorities' 'biased' attitude towards them.
Ajay Kumar Singh has been allowed to sit for a re-examination after he shot off a letter to Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and University Grants Commission Chairman S Thorat, who is also heading a committee to look into discrimination and harassment of reserved category students at AIIMS.
Singh received the letter on Saturday from AIIMS Administrative Officer R K Dabral stating that 'the re-examination will not be counted as an attempt nor it will be quoted as precedence in future.'
He has now shot off another letter to AIIMS Director P Venugopal and Dean Academics R C Deka, demanding re-examination under Dean Academics and that the papers should be checked by impartial panel.
"He was failed with malicious intentions. This was done as he was the main person who had raised the issue of discrimination against reserved category doctors in the campus during the anti-reservation stir," said R K Prasad, spokesman of the Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum.
Despite the director agreeing that the re-examination will be held under Deka and that a new set of examiners would be formed, there is no mention in the letter, he said.
Accepting that the issue was 'serious,' Deka said they will be taking a positive decision on the matter.
"This is a serious matter. As it was a special case and different from others, I recommended to the director that the examination should be convened separately and there should be independent observers to access the situation," he told PTI.
Deka said the director was pleased to permit setting up of independent observers for the re-examination.
"The director was pleased to permit this. We wanted to remove doubts from students' minds. We don't want to look as if we are biased, vindictive and discriminatory," he said, adding: "the order in this effect would be issued soon."
But Prasad questioned how a student, who has been scoring good marks in previous examinations, could fail.
"How can a person, who cleared his pre-professionals (before the main exams in December last year) in November could fail in just one month's time," he said.
"Singh had come to know that he would be failed but had not heeded to rumours. Even his examiners had asked him what he had told Thorat," he said.
Prasad said they had given a representation to the director earlier and he had agreed that the re-examination would be held under the supervision of Dean Academics and a new set of examiners would check the answer sheets," he said.
"But Saturday's letter has no mention of these two demands," he said.
Singh in his last month's letter to the Health Minister, who is the president of the institute, had said that 'he was deliberately failed in the examination and should be allowed to appear in examination which should not be considered as an attempt.'
"The injustice done to me should be rectified. The underprivileged who raise their voice against injustice and inequality should feel secure, otherwise no one would raise their voice again," he said.
Singh's letter to the Health Minister also states that though he had cleared MBBS entrance examination from the general category he was offered the seat under reserved category. "He has been scoring good marks," Prasad said.
He said the main reason behind failing Singh was that he was the key witness when Thorat had visited the campus last year and he had told him about the kind of ill-treatment they get in the AIIMS campus.
He said through the RTI they have found that in 2004-05, the administration had to take 11 SC students, but had filled only nine seats. "They showed that they had failed to fill two vacancies, but instead filled it with general category students," he said.
Singh, who failed in three subjects by few marks in each subject, has been asked to sit with seven other failed students for the re-examination.
He has failed in paediatrics, gynaecology and medicines and would be sitting for re-examination on Medicines on January 17.
Prasad said they are happy that out of the seven students, six are from reserved category.
"But we demand impartial and independent examiners during the re-examination under the dean supervision, otherwise we know the result would be same," he said.