BPSC re-examination: Khan Sir, Prashant Kishor join protesters

Speaking to reporters at the protest site, Khan Sir said, “I have been with the students since their successful protest against ‘normalisation’ (in BPSC prelims). Now that students have been demanding re-examination, I am again with them.”

Guru Rahman was only briefly at the protest site, having left soon because of ill health.

Prashant Kishor, who has been with the protesters since Thursday, had initially set a three-day ultimatum for the state government and the BPSC to resolve the matter, but was told by students that it would be difficult to sustain the protest for that long because of the cold. Kishor has now revised the ultimatum to 24 hours.

“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.

Aman Kumar, a student leader at the protest site, told The Indian Express: “I am from Sitamarhi and run a small coaching centre at Patna. My BPSC prelims centre was in Aurangabad. We were given question papers 20 minutes late and no extra time was given to fill the OMR sheet. This is not just my story. It happened with scores of students across 912 examination centres. Our contention is simple – why cancel the examination for just one Patna centre when there had been similar discrepancies at several centres. Fairness demands that there should be a re-examination.”

A BPSC official said, however, that there had been clear evidence of delayed distribution of question papers at just one centre in Patna, where re-examination has been ordered. “We cannot go by students’ allegations and cancel the examination held at all centres,” the official said.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi also backed the protesters. In a post on X in Hindi, he said, “This is the latest example from Bihar where students have been raising their voice against paper leak and demanding re-examination.”