'Person with 84 rejected': Candidate with '–16' marks gets admission in Himachal Pradesh uni, sparks debate

A document from the Central University of Himachal Pradesh has gone viral on social media, allegedly showing the admission of a student with a score of -16 to its MA Hindi programme for the academic session 2025–26.

The list in question, titled "Provisional Third List of Selected Candidates (M.A. Hindi), Academic Session 2025–26," features one Suneel Kumar under entry number CUHPPGCT0003255. What sparked outrage was the column indicating a score of ‘-16’—a detail that many online users have interpreted as being the candidate's entrance exam marks.

The controversy erupted after X user @neha_laldas shared a screenshot of the list, writing, "INDIA is the only country where a person scoring 84 is rejected and another scoring -16 is selected!!"

Business Today independently reached out to the Central University of Himachal Pradesh to verify the authenticity and context of the document, but no response had been received from the university at the time of publishing.

Meanwhile, the post has ignited a heated debate on affirmative action, caste-based quotas, and meritocracy, with several users weighing in with sharp opinions. Some comments advised students from the General Category (GC) to look beyond government opportunities and focus on private-sector growth through upskilling and use of artificial intelligence.

One user wrote, “These repetitive 3rd grade jobs are not meant for the top 5% GC community… Either UPSC for real impact or private sector for real impact… Use your brains that have developed. Remember, top 5% people run the world and make complex decisions. Rest just follow and do repetitive job.”

Another added, “As for GC students… Using AI properly gives access to 1000x more resources than a library ever could… Blr/Mumbai/Gurgaon—every city is thriving due to GCs who are leveraging technology NOT because of any Degree.”

The university is yet to provide any clarification on whether the marks column reflects actual scores or some other admission metric such as rank, category-based cutoff, or internal weighting.