The Shalya Tantra-1 (surgical methods) paper of the Bachelor of Ayurveda Medicine and Surgery – suspected to have leaked – had been put through the two-person authentication system.On Wednesday, several student organisations, including the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Congress’s National Students Union of India (NSUI), organised protests over the issue. They demanded an investigation and immediate action against those responsible.On July 20, five days before a nationwide agitation led by the Cockroach Janta Party and activists against the NEET paper leaks led to the resignation of senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan as Union education minister, a suspected “paper leak” alert went up from Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar.Also Read | Probe on into exam paper ‘leak’ at Gujarat Ayurved UniversityA flying squad of invigilators suddenly dropped into Shree Balahanuman Ayurved Mahavidyalaya in Mansa, Gandhinagar, one of 26 colleges in the state, where the Shalya Tantra-1 paper of third year students of Bachelor of Ayurveda Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) was underway.A professor from the Government Ayurved College in Junagadh, who was part of the squad, learnt that there was a text message being circulated that contained “important questions” for the same paper. He alerted top officials of Gujarat Ayurved University (GAU) about a “suspect” paper leak as 11 of the 12 questions in the message were indeed also in the examination paper that day, something that could impact the 2,000-odd students across 26 Ayurved colleges under GAU who took the examination on July 20.Vd Nareshkumar D Jain, the in-charge Vice Chancellor (V-C) of GAU, said the alarm was raised by a professor in Junagadh.Jain has set up a three-member committee of two principals and one Reader to internally probe the suspect paper leak. The matter would come to public knowledge only a week later.Story continues below this adA group of ABVP members on Wednesday went to the V-C’s office, asking him to “resign if he couldn’t stop paper leaks”. Devansh Brahmbhatt, Gujarat state secretary ABVP told The Indian Express, “The committee formed in this matter to investigate the paper leak should disclose the names of all those involved and take legal action against them at the earliest. It is the students’ career which is at stake.”Narendra Solanki President, Gujarat National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) said a representation demanding ‘strict action in the BAMS paper leak case of Gujarat Ayurveda University and the increasing rate of paper leak cases in the state’ was also submitted to several district collectors, on Wednesday.“In this case, the professor who set the paper is under direct suspicion and the fact that the administration did not take appropriate action on time is also a matter of investigation,” Solanki alleged, warning of an agitation across the state if strict action was not taken.NSUI has demanded a ‘judicial and impartial investigation into the alleged paper leak and prompt and strict criminal action against those involved including paper setters and responsible officials, to ensure transparency in all state universities and education board examinations so that the future of students is not compromised’.Story continues below this adSimilar warnings were issued by the AAP’s student wing, the Association of Students for Alternative Politics (ASAP) which held a protest at GAU in Jamnagar on Wednesday. A statement issued by the party said, “If there is any state in the entire country where the maximum number of paper leak incidents occur, it happens in Gujarat.”In-charge V-C Jain told The Indian Express, “The alarm was raised by a professor at Junagadh Ayurved College, who was at a college in Gandhinagar that day. He saw the message and informed us. The message contained important questions that could be asked in the paper. We don’t know who shared the message from which 11 of 12 questions were indeed asked in the Shalya Tantra-1 paper. The inquiry committee will speak to the complainant, other faculty as well as all those involved in the paper setting procedure. From the clerical to administrative level before filing the report.”However, Jain pointed out that the tracing of the text message through various phones would have to be done by the police. No complaint has yet been filed in the matter and the investigation, at present, remains confined to the internal processes of the University.Could it be a coincidence?There may be an argument to be made for a possible coincidence that the text message just happened to have 11 of the 12 questions that also appeared in the exam paper that day.Story continues below this adThe Vice Chancellor said, “The government has given a blueprint for each paper which has Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ), Short Answer Questions (SAQ) and Long Answer Questions (LAQ). Certain topics in the subject must be asked in certain sections of the paper based on their marks weightage in the curriculum. There are limitations that topics meant for MCQ may not be asked in LAQ and so on.”Vd. Jain added, “So it’s possible that these questions in the message may be purely coincidental. And it’s of course possible that it may have been leaked. We are not ruling out anything and it is all under investigation. If it is circulated among a small group of students then we will take action against them and if it was circulated widely, we may have to conduct this exam again.”Notably, the written exams of GAU will continue till August 2 and thus the University has recommended that the inquiry committee limit its investigation to the faculty, clerical and administrative aspects till the students get free next week.Five Papers & Two-Person AuthorisationExplaining the security of the examination system and the randomness of the selection of the subject paper that finally reached the students, the Vice Chancellor said, “From 26 colleges, five paper setters are selected by the Exam Control Board from among teachers who have completed five years experience. After that, these five question papers go to the Moderator who cross-checks all of them against the syllabus and whether the questions have been asked based on marks weightage for each topic. The paper is then sealed.”Story continues below this adVd. Jain added, “On the morning of the exam, the VC selects one of the five papers at random and that is sent to all the exam centres. They are sent with watermarks and coded specifically to the colleges.”The Principal of each college is the Chief Supervisor. The university also appoints a professor or associate professor from another college to act as Senior Supervisor.On the two-person authorization protocol, Jain said, “When these two people are in the strong room, they receive emails. The Chief Supervisor gets the exam paper link while the Senior Supervisor gets the password for it. It is only when both coordinate that the paper is downloaded at the particular college. The process to open the paper is also divided between the two officials. All this is done under CCTV surveillance. Then it is printed and given to students.”This also raises the question of whether the other four question papers, those which were not chosen to be used on July 20, also have questions similar to those in the text message that has caused the uproar. This is under investigation by the inquiry committee.Story continues below this adNotably, Jain himself, the in-charge VC of GAU, is substantially the principal of JP Government Ayurved College, Bhavnagar, and was Chief Supervisor of Examinations at his college before he had to rush to Jamnagar to deal with the alleged paper leak and the furore that followed. He said he has appointed a senior professor to act as Chief Supervisor in his stead.The full-time posts of three top officials of the Gujarat Ayurved University (GAU) have been vacant for upwards of a year including that of the Vice Chancellor, Registrar and Examination Controller.(With inputs from Ritu Sharma in Ahmedabad)