Bihar's Exam Transparency in Question

The state public services exam controversy has sparked protests over jobs amid political blame game ahead of Assembly elections, examines PRASOON PRIYE

- PRASOON PRIYE

On December 13, 24-year-old Shubham Kumar (name changed) appeared for the Bihar Public Service Commission's (BPSC)'s 70th Combined Competitive Examination (CCE) prelims. The BPSC conducted the exam across 912 centres, including Patna's Bapu Pariksha Parisar, where Shubham sat in Hall 3 on the fifth floor to write the paper.

Two hours into the exam, Shubham said he heard sloganeering when candidates from the second and third floors protested that they hadn't received their question papers on time. To the disappointment of several of the 400,000 aspirants who had registered, the exam was postponed at the Patna centre and a few others.

An invigilator at the centre, Ram Iqbal Singh, 58, suffered a cardiac arrest and later passed away. When authorities tried to rush him to a hospital, protesting students blocked the way. This led an official to slap a student, further enraging the crowd.

For Shubham, hailing from a lower-middle-class family in Bihar's Aurangabad, the postponement was frustrating. In October, he had left his full-time job in Delhi to prepare for competitive exams. He appeared for a re-examination on January 4, while another retest was held on Saturday.

Aspirants, such as Shubham, did not expect the issue of an alleged paper leak escalating into a raging controversy with sustained protests and political blame game. With Bihar's Assembly elections slated for October, the issue of jobs and unemployment has already become a key plank for the Opposition.