Members of various left organisations stage a protest demanding re-examination of 70th BPSC prelims exam and against the alleged police lathicharge on BPSC aspirants during an agitation, in Patna, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Even as the protest in Patna by aspirants seeking cancellation of the 70^th Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination over an alleged paper leak continued on Wednesday (January 1, 2025), a section of those who took the exam contends that there should be no retest as that would be a “gross injustice to the majority of candidates”.

‘No evidence of leak’

In the 70^th BPSC Preliminary Test, while 3.28 lakh candidates had appeared at 912 centres across the State for the exam on December 13, at one centre, Bapu Pariksha Parisar in Patna, some students alleged there was a delay in getting question papers and it was leaked. The students came out of the centre and started protesting, but were dispersed by the district administration. While there was no protest by the aspirants for the next five days, the BPSC announced a retest at Bapu Pariksha Parisar on January 4.

However, the students started protesting for a re-examination of the BPSC PT for all from December 19 by organizing sit-ins at Patna’s Gardanibagh area. They were later, brutally baton charged, sprayed water through canons and politicians like Tejashwi Yadav of Rashtriya Janata Dal, Prashant Kishor of Jan Suraaj Party, Independent MP from Purnea Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav allegedly jumped into the protest to express their solidarity with the aspirants.

The mounting protests have made other candidates who do not want a re-examination fear that their voices will get drowned out. They claim that the exam was conducted in a very “peaceful, proper and decent manner” at their centres and there was “no evidence” of any paper leak.

‘Students instigated’

“Some vested interest coaching mafias instigated some students by feeding cooked up stories into their minds. They fell prey to their sinister design. The whole protest is on unfounded grounds”, a BPSC aspirant from whose exam center was at Dehri-on-Sone in Rohtas district Nayan Kumar Jha told The Hindu over phone. Mr Jha, earlier, had cleared BPSC PT test twice and once he has appeared in the interview too but unfortunately couldn’t qualify the exam. “The exam was conducted peacefully at all centers baring one in Patna for which re-test was already announced. Initially, the students were not agitated but a few young men in their pursuit to become leaders, orchestrated the episode”, he added asserting, “there was no evidence that the question paper was leaked”. Mr Jha also decried several points raised by protesting aspirants for cancelling the test.

Another aspirant Tarique Asad Rizwee whose exam centre was at Katihar wondered how just over one per cent of aspirants could “agitate and demand a re-examination of the test” on behalf of 99% of students who do not want it as there was no evidence of any paper leak and the test was conducted by the Commission in a “very methodical and proper way”. Mr Rizwee is an IITian who graduated in mechanical engineering and claimed that he had “no problem at all” in appearing for the 70^th BPSC test exam. “Those who are protesting for the retest are ignorant and their demand will be gross injustice with us, about 99% of the examinee who do not want it”, he asserted. Tarique has also been one among thousands of examinees who have sent emails to the BPSC chairman demanding not to conduct any “retest” of the exam.

Iqra who goes by a single name, was also an aspirant of the BPSC-PT whose exam centre was at Saharsa Zila School and she also said the exam was held in a “proper manner and there was no discrepancy at all during the exam process”. “We do not demand any retest…why should others suffer because just a handful of aspirants demanding its retest?”, she asked over the phone. Iqra had appeared in BPSC PT for the second time and she has graduated from Bhagalpur. She added, that the agitation by a few aspirants has seemingly been “high jacked” by a few coaching institute mafias and some politicians for their own political purposes and not for the students’ welfare.

New Delhi:

The controversy surrounding the 70th Combined Preliminary Exam of the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) is assuming critical proportions with every passing day. Students have levelled allegations of irregularities in the examination, the poor quality of the question paper, and the similarities between the questions in the exam and model papers from coaching institutes. They are, therefore, demanding a complete cancellation of the exam and a re-conduct of the examination.

Opposition parties such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, CPI (M-L), and Jan Suraaj are supporting the students’ demands, slamming the government for jeopardising the future of students. BPSC has rejected these allegations, calling them “irrational” and has appealed to students to focus on preparing for the main exam.

Key developments so far

The controversy surrounding BPSC’s 70th Combined Preliminary Exam, which began on December 6, 2024, continues to be a topic of discussion. The advertisement for this exam was released in September 2024, and 483,000 candidates applied, out of which 325,000 appeared for the exam.

The exam was conducted for 2,031 positions, including 200 SDMs, 136 DSPs, and other gazetted officer posts, making it one of the largest vacancies in recent years.

The preliminary exam was held on December 13, 2024, between 12 PM and 2 PM, with candidates answering 150 questions on general knowledge.

Timeline of events:

December 6: Students raised concerns about normalisation, accusing BPSC of introducing the practice. BPSC dismissed these allegations, calling them “rumours,” stating there were no plans for normalisation.

December 13: A disturbance occurred at the Bapu Pariksha Parisar (Bapu Examination Complex) in Patna, where the question papers were delayed. As a result, BPSC decided to re-conduct the exam for 12,000 candidates from this centre on January 4, 2025.

December 18: Protests intensified at the Gardanibagh protest site, with students demanding the complete cancellation of the exam. The protest still continues.

Irregularities alleged at other centres:

Although BPSC has acknowledged the delay in question paper distribution at the Bapu Examination Complex in Patna, students are alleging irregularities at other exam centres as well:

The Bapu exam centre in Patna, built by the Bihar government in 2023, has also come under scrutiny. While the Bihar government claims it is the largest exam centre in the country, capable of hosting 20,000 candidates at once, coordination between the BPSC, Patna District Administration, and the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) was reportedly poor, contributing to the delay in the exam.

In a press release, BPSC clarified that the Bapu Examination Complex is under the administrative control of the BSEB, with no direct involvement from the BPSC.

Allegations regarding the question paper:

Another significant concern raised by students is the content of the question paper. Many students have noted that the questions appeared to be at the level of a police recruitment exam and closely matched model papers provided by coaching institutes.

In response, BPSC Secretary Satyaprakash Sharma explained that the exam paper is set by an independent panel of experts, and if the paper was simple, the cutoff would be higher, which should not be a cause for concern.

He acknowledged that there were a few similarities with coaching institute papers but downplayed their significance, stating that these questions would not help a candidate pass the exam.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)