New Delhi, Sept. 3 -- On July 31, 2025, the streets of Delhi turned into a battleground for justice. Outside the gates of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), thousands of aspirants and several prominent educators gathered with a simple demand: fairness in the conduct of the SSC exams, accountability, and the right to a future they had worked years to secure. Instead of answers, they were met with lathi charges and detentions. Their only "crime" was questioning an examination system plagued by inefficiency-one that sends students thousands of kilometres away from home only to subject them to delays, server crashes, and cancelled papers.

For many, the SSC exams had become less about testing knowledge and more about surviving c...