Sitting under a towering statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan with scores of students, Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor has been on a fast-unto-death since Thursday.
He is the first politician allowed to sit on dharna at the famous ground, instead of the designated protest site of Gardanibagh – reflecting the state government’s caution when it comes to dealing with Kishor, otherwise a new political entrant.
Apart from students, there are several elderly at the dharna site, which is separate from the original protest that is ongoing at Gardanibagh.
One day and one chilly winter night into his hunger strike, Kishor says there is no question of budging from his position. Instead, he tells The Indian Express: “If the government does not order re-examination of the Bihar Public Service Commission’s prelims before 31st January (the date of announcement of the BPSC prelims result), we will not let the government hold the January 26 official function at this ground. We will ensure that at least 500 students come to the ground from each block of Bihar.”
Kishor, who claims to be moving Bihar politics away from caste and towards the issue of education and jobs, says the protest has gone beyond being just about the BPSC. “It is an expression of the students’ cumulative anger against the bureaucracy, which has mishandled several competitive examinations in the last 10 years. To the government, it may appear to be a common protest, but it can turn into a movement if the system does not wake up.”
The poll strategist-turned-politician also repeats his allegation that the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in the state is hesitant about ordering a re-examination of the BPSC prelims because of “the massive corruption at play”.
“We have learnt that seats are being sold for between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 1.5 crore. In a state where a former DGP’s role is under investigation over an examination for constables, what can one expect?” he says, adding that the Jan Suraaj Party wanted “a thorough investigation of all alleged and reported malpractices and paper leaks in all examinations conducted by various state government agencies in the last 10 years”.
As Kishor, clad in jeans and a grey sweater, takes a break to sip water, the students continue their protest songs around him, targeting Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, state police and the BPSC. A student croons the film Mughal-e-Azam’s song “Pyar kiya to darna kya”, to suggest there is no backing out from the protest.
The protesters ask why no government official came to meet them from December 18, when they began their dharna, till December 28. Among the only politicians to support them, they say, was Purnea MP Rajesh Ranjan or Pappu Yadav, who is an Independent. On Friday, Pappu Yadav tried to disrupt train traffic as part of a bandh call.
“Now, with Prashant Kishor, we feel someone has fully embraced the protest,” says Rajesh Kumar, who is here from Aurangabad.
Kishor, who says that “the sheer energy of students” is keeping their spirits up, adds that Nitish Kumar should provide the unemployment allowance to jobless youths between the ages of 18 and 35 that his government announced back in 2015 under the Saat Nischay programme.
Another demand on Kishor’s list is a domicile policy for Bihar. Given the extent of unemployment in the state, he says, “there is no point not having a domicile policy”. “In recent teachers’ recruitment examinations, about 60,000 teachers appointed were from outside the state,” he claims.
The Jan Suraaj Party founder also takes on the recent lathicharge over the BPSC exam protesters. The opposition RJD has accused Kishor of inciting the protesters, with some youths claiming that Kishor “abandoned” them just before the police cracked down and returned only after it had gone away.
“In the last three years, Bihar has seen 87 lathicharges – the highest in the country, not just on students but on teachers, anganwadi workers and political workers,” Kishor claims. “How can we call ourselves the Mother of the Republic when we have a lathi tantra (policy) in place?”
Noting that the 1974 Jayaprakash Narayan movement also started with a motley group of students, he says Bihar is on the cusp of another such moment. Student wings of Left parties have lent their support to the protesters’ demand now, while the RJD too has backed a re-examination while calling paper leaks “state sponsored”.
Kishor, however, says all parties have done only posturing on the issue, and questions the BJP’s “silence”. “When the BJP was in the Opposition, its senior leader and MP Janardhan Singh Sigriwal was injured during a lathicharge. It is cowardly for them not to react now,” he says, adding that the BJP may end up “the biggest loser” even as it is attempting to become the largest party in Bihar, overpowering the JD(U), like it had done in Maharashtra.
The BPSC has resisted calls for cancellation of the entire prelims exam, saying the irregularity was confined to a centre in Patna, where a re-examination had already been ordered. “We are going ahead with the re-examination at the Patna centre on Saturday and the prelims results will be announced on January 31,” said a senior BPSC official.
A senior government official said: “Chief Secretary Amrit Lal Meena is closely monitoring the BPSC protest.”
Also present at Kishor’s protest spot is former DIG Arvind Thakur. As Thakur gets up to take the mic and continue the protest songs, Kishor says: “He has just joined us from the BJP. We are getting support from various strata of society.”
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