Did your IIM pal buy his way in?

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">Did that hotshot MBA in the next cubicle buy his way into IIM? <br /><br />Huh? <br /><br />OK: Hit escape, followed by the back button. <br /><br />So the CAT scam got busted this year, and there’ll be a re-examination , causing lots of heartburn among everyone who had slogged a year – especially the guys who thought they’d maxed the text.<br /><br />But how do we know it didn’t happen last year – and the year before – and the year before – and so on? Don’t tell me this is the first time that this particular racket has been perpetrated: I can bet my never-to-be-earned bottom dollar that this has happened before.With CAT, with JEE, with any of the acronymed entrance tests to what long ceased to be educational institutes and became job-delivery vehicles. </div> <div align="left" style="position:relative; left: -6"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="left" border="1" width="31.2%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:=""> <div class="Normal"><span style="" color:="" ffffff="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""><script language="javascript" src="Config?Configid=43376741"></script></span><br /><span style="" color:="" ffffff="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">RELATED STORIES</span></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" fbfbfb=""> <div class="Normal"><a href="http://thetimesofindia.online/articleshow/301731.cms" target="_blank">Ranjit earned Rs 100 cr per annum</a><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="http://thetimesofindia.online/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=301726" target="_blank">Retest likely to be delayed affair</a><span style="" font-size:=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="http://thetimesofindia.online/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=301789" target="_blank">CAT leak gives HRD a handle</a><span style="" font-size:=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="http://thetimesofindia.online/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=301594" target="_blank">Dates to be announced by Wed</a><span style="" font-size:=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="http://thetimesofindia.online/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=298906" target="_blank">Past tests under CBI scanner</a><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="http://thetimesofindia.online/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=301652" target="_blank">Unravelling the Scam, 2003 in Pune</a><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="http://thetimesofindia.online/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=301729" target="_blank">Is this a sequel to 1998 scam?</a><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="http://thetimesofindia.online/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=302076" target="_blank">Professionals in a tight spot</a><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="http://thetimesofindia.online/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=301557" target="_blank">Phone call led TOI to CAT scam</a><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="http://thetimesofindia.online/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=302091" target="_blank">Loopholes can be plugged: Experts</a><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="http://thetimesofindia.online/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=302085" target="_blank">CAT scam 2003: A tale to tell</a><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="http://thetimesofindia.online/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=302078" target="_blank">''I thought it was a prank''</a></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Forget for a while the morality of it all – an easy task in our country today. But think of the guys who’ve got in fairly, without paying their way to an advance view of the question paper. </span><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""> </span><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Why shed tears for them, you ask? They got in, didn’t they? So what’s the problem here? </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Simple: aren’t you going to be wondering if that bright spark from one of the IIMs – maybe he works alongside you? Maybe she’s the sparkling-eyed kid you hired from campus? – actually got to get a crack at the elite MBA by buying their way into a copy of the question paper? </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Here’s why the question is relevant. Let’s suspend disbelief for a bit – some will say what you’re about to read is so credible no one needs to be sceptical – and consider a similar scenario in another field where the bucks are big: cricket. </span><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br />We all know of the accusation against Abhijit Kale of having tried to bribe his way into the Indian cricket squad, accusations followed by a barrage from other cricketers around the country alleging that national and zonal selectors are open to the cash-for-a-place-in-the-team system. <br /><br />Now, aren’t you wondering whether any of the current batch of cricketers did actually get in that way? Impossible? Consider this: in 1996, a rank outsider, a southpaw batter from Bengal, not only makes the trip to England, but also, incredibly, gets to play and is sent in at the all-important No. 3 slot. <br /><br />Sourav Ganguly, who scored back-to-back Test centuries on debut, has, of course, proved his worth many times over. Now just imagine how he – and his teammates – would feel if he were to be accused of buying a place in the squad that toured England seven years ago. <br /><br />Now you see just why the CATscamstars every IIM grad with the brush, irrespective of the innocence of perhaps 100 per cent of them? <br /><br />Now you see why a racket that subverts a system can affect each and every one of us? <br /><br />Who’s to blame? The criminals, of course – but just why is there a market for their services in the first place? After all, those who bought the question papers in advance – btw, is that what a buy-in refers to? – knew they were doing wrong. But just as every cab-driver trying to fleece you tells you with moral indignation that he shouldn’t be blamed when the nation’s leaders are thieves, too, so too are some of our best and brightest reasoning that there’s nothing unethical with getting a peek at the question paper in advance. <br /><br />In fact, many people believe it’s stupid not to take advantage of such an opportunity – your wallets permitting. Indeed, many of the have-bots carp that they don’t have enough money, not that they have too many scruples. <br /><br />So who’s to blame? You don’t need to buy this single question paper in advance to answer that one correctly.</div> </div>