Pappu Yadav backs Bihar students, begins hunger strike over BPSC row
Independent MP demands fresh 70th BPSC exam, raises concerns over paper leaks, marking discrepancies and police action
Independent MP Pappu Yadav, who supports the INDIA bloc, on Sunday sat on a hunger strike at a protest site in Patna over alleged irregularities in the 70th Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) exams, and other issues.
Research scholars, along with BPSC and Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) aspirants, are protesting in Patna’s Gardanibagh area over a multitude of issues, ranging from new rules regarding recruitment of assistant professor to inconsistencies in the state civil services exam.
Yadav said the 70th BPSC exam should be scrapped and re-conducted afresh.
“Research scholars have been on hunger strike for the last 13 days, but there is nobody to listen to them. Neither the chief minister nor Bihar’s education minister is paying heed to their grievances. The education minister talks about introducing the UPSC mains pattern in BPSC exams, which is bereft of any logic. The entire system is in a mess,” he told reporters.
He alleged there were marking inconsistencies in the 70th BPSC exam, frequent question paper leaks, police brutality against protesting students in the state, and disproportionate weightage to the English language in government exams.
“The government itself accepted that the question paper of the 70th BPSC examination had leaked. Such incidents have happened even before. However, when students protest against such inconsistencies, they are beaten up and sent to jail,” the MP said.
He charged the government with “continuously committing injustice” against students and “refusing to listen to them”.
“Students are seriously concerned about TRE-4 exam notification. Additionally, the government accords disproportionate weightage to English-medium candidates vis-a-vis those opting Hindi, which is contrary to UGC and NET rules,” Yadav said.
He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of labelling all educated youth of the country as ‘intellectual Naxals’.
Modi had, during his Independence Day speech on Saturday, said that “while armed Naxals are eliminated in the country, we will have to identify and isolate intellectual Naxals”.
