Kejriwal did crack IITJEE

KOLKATA: IIT Kharagpur has rubbished the rumour that is doing the rounds that Arvind Kejriwal might have entered the portals of the institute by using a "back door". The What's App message that has gone viral over the past couple of days says that Kejriwal did not crack IITJEE in 1985 to get his berth in mechanical engineering at IIT Kgp. Instead, he got his admission through a "quota" that was reserved for the Jindal Group.The Jindal group acted as his "corporate guardian" and sought admission for him on the basis of the claim that it had built several blocks for IIT Kgp and had been given the right to send two students every year for admission.
"We received the RTI question and have replied to it already. The claim that Kejriwal entered not through the required competitive entrance exam is complete bunkum. He cracked IITJEE like all other candidates of his year and there was nothing like a corporate quota reservation for admission," said Rajender Singh, dean of undergraduate studies and admissions at IIT Kgp.
The problem might have arisen from the fact that IIT Kgp could not give Kejriwal's rank in the exam. "The system is such that all IITJEE data is destroyed after three years and hence we could not ascertain his rank and that must have given rise to this story, which is completely false," Singh reiterated.
A reservation quota existed in IIT Kgp only for wards of IIT Kgp employees but that was not applicable to engineering. There were 15 seats reserved for wards of IIT Kgp employees for five year integrated programmes in M Sc only, Singh clarified. "Neither were Kejriwal's parents IIT Kgp employees, nor did he study science, so the word quota does'nt apply to him at all!" Singh added.
He insisted that Kejriwal was quite a bright student who must have ranked within the top 500 in IITJEE to get admission to mechanical engineering in 1985, which traditionally requires very high rank to get admission in IIT Kgp. Kejriwal graduated in 1989 and was a resident of the Nehru Hall.