Social media is busy recording ‘confessional’ statements of those who cheated during TISS-NET, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences’ admission exam. Candidates have been posting and discussing their ‘cheating skills’ rather pompously too.

As for the others, they are crying foul because they did not cheat and now feel shortchanged since TISS is unwilling to take any action against the so-called cheaters.

The concerned official at TISS has only one question for those wanting a re-exam – “If you saw other candidates speaking on their cell phones during the exam, why did you not report it to the invigilators immediately. Why create such a mayhem on social media and other public discussion (such as PaGaLGuY) days after the exam is over.”

The official added that the institutes received complaints against two such candidates and they were debarred from the exam immediately.

PaGaLGuY tracked down a few candidates who claimed to have cheated during the exam and knew of those who did, (and boasted about it on social media sites) but they did not want to talk to us.

The TISS official is certain that the entire doing could be the doing of a few who take the exam only for the sake of ‘discussing’ the questions and ‘guessing’ estimate scores.

The official further added that since very few are talking about this alleged ‘cheating’ and that too on public forums and social media, the institute is unlikely to take any action.

For those candidates who claim to have studied diligently and taken the exam honestly, it seems like a dead-end. “Those who cheated will get better marks, but with the institute not wanting to take our complaints seriously, our chances of making it to TISS are bleak,” said one such to PaGaLGuY.

The hard fact however remains, that if there is even one complaint, the institute should look into it and send the right signals to its aspirants. It was definitely not easy for XLRI officials to admit to evaluation errors last year and take radical steps to make amends.

A similar outcry was recorded last year at TISS, when candidates alleged that there were errors in evaluation. However, nothing came of it.