Even as protests over alleged irregularities in the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) have gained the spotlight with Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Prashant Kishor extending his support, sitting on a hunger strike, and serving jail time before release, the Nitish Kumar-led government seems to be unfazed and feels that the issue is a just a flash in the pan.
Though the timing of the high-profile protests, in an election year, might have been expected to have a political fallout, sources in the Bihar government, the JD(U) and BJP said they expected these to die a natural death as there was “no evidence” of a paper leak. On Sunday, amidst the protests, the BPSC managed to conduct a successful retest at the only exam centre where it admitted some discrepancy.
A senior JD(U) leader blamed coaching centres for the clamour over the cancellation of the exams as it only means more money for them. Asserting that the BPSC exam had been “transparent”, the leader said: “A cancellation will burden aspirants. There is an attempt to create a controversy as Assembly elections are round the corner but it is dying down.”
Apart from Kishor, the JD(U) leader blamed Purnia MP Pappu Yadav, an Independent, for seeking to politicise the matter. However, he said, the Assembly polls will remain “a direct INDIA-NDA contest with no third player in the race”.
A minister in the Nitish Kumar Cabinet, requesting anonymity, also blamed the coaching centres and said the BPSC’s “corrective steps” were enough. “The candidates who are not protesting will have to reappear (if the exam is cancelled)… What about them? Should they be forced to rewrite the daunting exam?” the minister said.
The protests have now been on for just over a month. They first started a week before the BPSC prelims exam – held to fill positions in state services, including that of sub-divisional magistrates and deputy superintendents of police – when scores of students gathered outside the commission’s office in Patna demanding a written assurance on the scoring pattern. The protests escalated after a protesting student was allegedly slapped by Patna District Magistrate Chandrashekhar Singh.
Since the exams were held and reports came of discrepancy at a Patna centre, where there was a delay in the start of the exam, a large section of the students have been on the streets demanding that the BSPC exam be cancelled and a retest ordered.
A BJP leader also slammed Kishor, labelling the protest a “desperate attempt” by him to find an issue ahead of the Assembly polls, especially as the JSP did not win any of the four seats in its first electoral contest in the recent bypolls. “The NDA won the bypolls with ease and hence Kishor is making an issue. If you observe, even the principal Opposition RJD is not raising the issue,” the BJP leader said.
However, notwithstanding the BJP leader’s claim, the JSP won enough votes in the bypolls to impact the RJD in Belaganj and Imamganj, which the Lalu Prasad-led outfit had retained for over three decades.
Before he was released on bail without any conditions, Kishor, who claims that his politics is all about jobs and youths and shuns caste, had said he would only end his fast after Nitish met the candidates. There was no response from the CM but the administration relented after Kishor refused to accept bail conditions such as a formal assurance that he would not participate in the protests henceforth.
The RJD, which is worried about the JSP encroaching on the Opposition space, called his role in the protests “a collaborative act between the administration and Kishor”. It also asks why police detained him only on the grounds of holding the protest at the restricted Gandhi Maidan.
A source in the Bihar government said the RJD, while supporting the protests, has kept its distance as Kishor has taken the lead on the issue. “Why will the RJD join a protest in which Kishor is projecting himself as the face? Would they want to be seen as playing second fiddle?” the source said.
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