Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SHP)
Bengaluru, Aug 28: Amid the corona pandemic holding of examinations for students has been raising concerns among the students and the parents. Upcoming exams that are going to be held soon is the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). After being postponed several times due to the pandemic, the National Testing Agency (NTA) on August 25 confirmed that JEE (Main) and NEET (UG) exams will be held as scheduled from September 1 to 6 and September 13 respectively. Following this announcement, there was a call for cancelling the examinations. Hashtags like #ProtestAgainstExamsInCovid and #AntiStudentModiGovt began trending.
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On August 21, National Vice President of All India Students’ Association (AISA) Ashutosh Kumar tweeted two screenshots of alleged news articles by News18 and NDTV. AISA is the student wing affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. As per the News18 screenshot, 57 parents and grandparents of students who appeared for an exam in Karanataka passed away after over 5,000 students tested positive for COVID. Kumar wrote, “This is what happened when only 80,000 candidates appeared for exams all over India just think when 28 lac students will be appearing what will be the condition! Still, they say students cannot decide their welfare. #ProtestAgainstExamsInCOVID.” This tweet was retweeted over 3,000 times.
A news agency by the name Alt News had also analysed the screenshots and found the claims by AISA to be untrue.
The headline in the News18 screenshot reads, “COMDEK UGET 2020: 57 deaths With 5371 students tested +ve for Covid 19, 8456 students qurantined” followed by the subheading that reads, “Students appeared for the COMDEK many been tested positive for covid 19 with 57 grandparents and parents deaths students onfire.” As per the screenshot the article was published on August 20.
A keyword search does not lead to either this ‘story’ by News18 or any reports by other media organisations.
It was also observed that there were several grammatical errors which are not something a well-known news agency will make. The abbreviation of Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka Under Graduate Entrance Test is COMEDK UGET not ‘COMDEK’ UGET. The word ‘quarantined’ is misspelt as ‘qurantined’. COVID-19 is written without a hyphen and the use of capital letters in the middle of a sentence are other indicators that the screenshot is fake.
Similarly, the headline of the NDTV article reads, “60 COVID-19 Positive Among 1.47 Lakh Students Who Appeared For CET in Karnataka”, followed by the text, “Sixty COVID-19 positive students were among the 1.47 lakh who appeared for the Karnataka Common Entrance Test for engineering and other courses which began on Thursday.” The article was published on July 31 and is about the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (CET) held last month. The COMEDK examinations were conducted on August 19.
As per NDTV screenshot, out of 1.47 lac students who appeared for CET, 60 were COVID-19 positive. Deputy chief minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan was quoted in the report saying, “Separate sitting arrangements have been made for the COVID-19 students and they faced the examination courageously.”
Although the screenshots painted a horrific picture, it was found that the tweet uploaded by AISA national vice-president Ashutosh Kumar were indeed doctored.