A cow has been issued an admit card for a professional examination in Jammu & Kashmir. Clearly the result of a prank, this has sparked off another round of political finger-pointing, with the National Conference seeking an “explanation” from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
On Saturday it was revealed that the state Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) had issued an admit card in the name of Kachir Gaaw (brown cow), supposedly the daughter of Gura Dand (red bull).
The cow was even allotted a seat at Government Degree College Bemina for writing the entrance examination to diploma in polytechnic scheduled on May 10.
NC spokesman Junaid Azim Mattu was the first to upload the picture of the admit card with the cow’s photo on Twitter.
“The board issued this roll number slip to a cow after due verification,” he tweeted. “(J&K Education Minister) Mr Naeem Akhtar has some explaining to do.”
According to BOPEE’s controller of examination, Farooq Ahmad Mir, the board cannot do much to prevent such pranks.
“The entire process — from filling up an application form to generation of admit cards — is computer generated. There is an image recognition software, which does not differentiate between a human’s face and an animal’s picture. Someone has played a prank,” Mir said. “We will act against the prankster after tracking down his IP address.”
But that hasn’t stopped the opposition from attacking the administration.
Former chief minister and NC working president Omar Abdullah said, “Brilliant. I wish Kachir Gaaw had turned up for the examination.”
In response, the state education minister said, “This is called computer illiteracy. They should know what is meant by ‘computer generated’. When they couldn’t find any issue of substance, they started raising these trivial issues”.
- Karan Singh
To Learn More:
Cow gets admit card for professional course test in Jammu and Kashmir (Hindustan Times)
In Jammu and Kashmir, admit card with cow photo is political fodder (by Bashaarat Masood, Indian Express)
Holy Cow! A 'brown' cow issued admit card for exam in Kashmir, authorities say they were pranked (PTI)
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