Assistant professor recruitment under Haryana PSC faces rigging, paper leak allegations

Raising serious concerns over the integrity of the recruitment process for assistant professors in Haryana, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala has demanded the cancellation of the recent exams conducted by the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC), citing allegations of large-scale rigging and irregularities.

Surjewala also called for a judicial inquiry into the matter and urged the exams to be held again in a transparent manner.

A group of affected candidates submitted a memorandum at the Delhi residence of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, seeking his intervention.

Responding to the allegations, Haryana Chief Minister’s media secretary Praveen Attrey dismissed the claims as “baseless,” saying, “Mr Surjewala had made similar accusations over half a dozen times since the BJP first came to power in 2014 and was frustrated over the people voting the saffron party to power for the third time in a row, expressing faith in its policies.”

At a press conference in Hisar, Surjewala pointed to alleged irregularities in the Assistant Professor (Geography) exam, claiming that 32 questions were lifted directly from a question paper previously used by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC).

“Is it a coincidence or an experiment that HPSC Chairman Alok Verma has also been ‘imported’ from Bihar?” Surjewala said, suggesting that the recruitment process may have been manipulated by indirectly encouraging candidates to prepare from the BPSC paper.

The HPSC had advertised 2,424 vacancies across 26 subjects in August last year, the first such recruitment drive in about five years. Nearly 1.5 lakh candidates had applied for the posts.

Surjewala further alleged that envelopes containing question papers for the Hindi exam were found with broken seals at six different centers.

Although the HPSC initially maintained the exam was not compromised, it later cancelled the Hindi exam two days after the controversy surfaced. “This is the biggest proof of a scam,” Surjewala said.

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who met with the delegation of candidates, said, “Paper leaks, copy-paste exams, and scams have become synonymous with the recruitments conducted under the BJP government.”

Hooda added that serious irregularities have been reported not just in history, but also in subjects such as Hindi, zoology, chemistry, and physics.

He noted that candidates had already submitted written complaints to the HPSC, demanding cancellation of these exams.

Candidates told Hooda that 24 questions in the history exam were copied word-for-word from a paper used earlier by the Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission.

“The HPSC did not even bother to modify the questions, not in language nor in context,” they alleged.

In defense, Attrey accused the Congress of misusing its authority during its time in office. He said, “The Congress arbitrarily distributed jobs to its near and dear ones during its ten-year rule,” and claimed that the BJP government has implemented a merit-based system, which has caused discomfort for the opposition.