It is said that a good concept delivered with good content cannot remain silent for too long and the quote fits in Bollywood actress Gauahar Khan starrer Shiksha Mandal web series. Shiksha Mandal web series was released on MX Player on September 15. Due to not having a big starcast the buzz around Shiksha Mandal was not that high as compared to other web series. However, Shiksha Mandal's content is now slowly and steadily creating buzz among the fans, courtesy of its content and the impeccable performance of its star cast. Shiksha Mandal trailer was released last month and it showcased actress Gauahar Khan donning a Police officer's cap and investigating India's biggest education scam. Apart from Gauahar Khan, Shiksha Mandal star cast also features actors like Pavan Raj Malhotra, Anuradha Singh Srivastav, Gulshan Devaiah, Aditya Rai, Dhansu Yadav, Gauri Chakraborty, Sumitra Rai and Niharika Porwal in a pivotal role. Shiksha Mandal is directed by Syed Ahmad Afzal. As the trailer suggests, it portrays India's biggest education scam, the question arises whether Shiksha Mandal is a true story or Shiksha Mandal is a real story or not.
The answer to this question is yes. Shiksha Mandal is a true story based on India's biggest education scam infamously called as Vyapam Scam which was unearthed in 2013. For the unversed, the scam in Vyapam or let's say the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board broke out in 2013, wherein candidates had bribed officials and rigged exams by deploying imposters to write their answer sheets. The Vyapam scam was revealed in 2013 when Indore police detained 20 persons who had come to fake PMT 2009 participants. Reportedly, the Vyapam scam began in 1995 involving politicians, senior officials, and businessmen. The CBI had taken over the investigation following the Supreme Court order in 2015.
Coming to Shiksha Mandal, the Syed Ahmad Afzal directorial tried hard to portray the exact happening of the Vyapam Scam on a fictional basis. In fact, commenting on the series, Afzal was quoted by IANS saying, "While Shiksha Mandal is a story inspired by true events, we've tried to ensure that the narrative is as gripping as it is realistic." Notably, veteran actor Pavan Verma is the antagonist who portrays the character of Mafia King Dhansu Yadav. Notably, fans having the knowledge of Vyapam Scam will feel the uncanny similarities between the character of Dhansu Yadav and Jagdish Sagar, the one who was arrested and later was called the leader of a criminal organization implicated in the scheme.
What is Vyapam Scam?
Talking more about the Vyapam Scam, it was an entrance examination, admission and recruitment scam. Reportedly operational from 1990s, the Vyapam Scam as finally unearthed in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh in 2013. The scam involved politicians, senior and junior officials and businessmen systematically employing imposters to write papers, manipulate exam hall seating arrangements, and supply forged answer sheets by bribing officials.
To be precise, the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), popularly known by its Hindi acronym 'Vyapam' (Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal), is a self-financed and autonomous body incorporated by the state government responsible for conducting several entrance tests in the state. Reportedly, these entrance exams are held for recruitment in government jobs and admissions in educational institutes of the state.
The scam involved 13 different exams conducted by Vyapam, for selection of medical students and state government employees. Furthermore, the exams were taken by around 3.2 million students each year, many of whom were actually paid proxies for other undeserving students. It also included an 'engine-bogie' system wherein seating arrangements were manipulated. In layman's language, it is a technique for exam cheating that involves selecting intelligent students called as 'Engines' as solving candidates so that their answers can be copied by the recipients termed as 'Bogies' that would sit behind them.
In the Vyapam Scam- till June 2015, more than 2000 people had been arrested in this case.