What happened on December 13 that led to BPSC protests

What happened in BPSC Patna centre?

On December 13, when the exam commenced at all centres across the state, one centre in Patna — Bapu Pariksha Parisar — faced issues in the exam conduction process.

Around 12:30 pm of December 13, BPSC officials were informed about complaints regarding some students creating a ruckus in the exam. As per BPSC chairman Parmar Ravi Manubhai some people, in the garb of being students, started snatching question papers from the invigilators while distribution was taking place, and started shouting that the question paper had already gone viral on the internet. This accusation of paper leak has been dismissed by BPSC as they claim that students who have been sitting in the exam room for the past 15-20 minutes would have no way of knowing that the question paper has gone viral unless they wanted to create a ruckus.

Following this, the candidates ran out of the exam room with the envelope containing question papers and threw it to the other side of the boundary to give it to some people who were waiting outside the centre. These candidates had no access to mobile phones or internet, so they took help of the people from outside the boundary wall to upload the question paper on social media platforms such as X (Twitter), Telegram, WhatsApp etc. By 1 pm, several photocopies of the question paper were being circulated — online and offline.

What are candidates from Bapu Pariksha Parisar saying?

“I was taking the exam when around 12.15 pm, I heard noise from outside the hall,” a 29-year-old aspirant who was taking the exam from the Bapu Pariksha Bhavan told indianexpress.com on December 13.

The aspirant also added that the invigilator closed the doors upon hearing the news. However, a few minutes after the noise, some candidates broke open the door and threatened them not to attempt any more questions. “My paper was snatched and I could not take the exam. I came out from the exam hall by 1 pm,” said the aspirant who hails from West Champaran district.

Another 32-year-old candidate said around 300 aspirants from one exam hall at the same centre were not provided with any question paper despite repeated requests to the authorities. Those students who were not provided with the question papers created a ruckus and demanded that no one should be allowed to take the test.

BPSC’s decision

On December 13, the Commission assured candidates that the CCTV footage available from the centre will be investigated and strong criminal action will be taken against people who have tried to create problems for all the candidates.

Following this, a full-bench meeting was held on December 19 to address the cancellation of the preliminary examination conducted at the Bapu Pariksha Parisar. This team of experts decided to cancel the exam for the candidates of one centre — Bapu Pariksha Parisar — and re-conduct the exam on January 4, 2025. The cancellation was attributed to unforeseen issues during the examination process.

Why are candidates protesting now?

While the BPSC has claimed that the exam was conducted smoothly in 911 centres, out of 912, candidates are claiming there were issues in other centres too. Aspirants are also raising concern about BPSC re-conducting exam only for once centre. Candidates are worried that this will bring back normlisation of score — a practice that BPSC candidates had earlier protested against.

The protests have been ongoing since December 13 and has grown in number in the past few days. Hundreds of candidates who had appeared for the BPSC prelims started agitating at Patna’s Gardanibagh area since December 18, calling for the cancellation of the exam, alleging that CCTV cameras and jammers had not been functional at several examination centres and that question papers had been distributed late at some locations. Some popular educators as well as Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor joined the protesters in Patna. Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav has also backed the aspirants and called on the BPSC to conduct fresh prelims.

“If the government does not listen to students’ demands, I will be at the forefront of the students’ protest march whenever it is scheduled. Students have been protesting democratically. If the police resort to further lathi-charge, it will have to bear the consequences,” said Kishor.

The protest took an ugly turn on Sunday when the Bihar Police used water cannons and resorted to lathi charge to disperse hundreds of protestors, when some of them tried to break through barricades set up to stop them from going towards the Chief Minister’s residence in Patna.

What is BPSC CCE?

BPSC conducts several recruitment exams to fill Group A, B, C posts in the state administration of Bihar. Through CCE, BPSC recruits for about 20 posts and services. Via the 70th CCE exam, the commission aims to fill as many as 2,035 vacancies across the state, for which around 3.8 lakh students had written BPSC prelims exam on December 13.