Our ally (RJD) is angry; culprits will pay dearly for sinning against state: Bihar edu minister

Like last year’s mass copying scandal, the topper scam has caught world attention. A little before disbanding the two inquiry panels probing the scam, state education minister

Ashok Choudhary

talks to TOI’s Raj Kumar about how his government is trying to overcome Bihar’s moment of shame. Excerpts:

After mass copying in Class X examinations of Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) made international headlines last year, the state government successfully prevented the use of unfair means in Classes X and XII exams this year. Post that, however, the merit scam has brought equally damning disrepute to Bihar. You have ended up vindicating an old saying ‘Choubey gaye Chhabbe banane, Dubey ban ke aa gaye’, haven’t you?

(Pauses) Loss of face toh hua hai… I have already said we – the state officials – literally burned midnight oil to prepare delicious ‘kheer’. However, some nefarious elements threw a lizard into the dish when the time came for us to savour the fruits of our hard work.

And those elements have gone scot-free… You haven’t even identified them..
Wait and watch… Even the harshest of government-baiters would agree that our CM is a man of probity and propriety. He is hugely upset. The government is going to identify the culprits and initiate criminal cases against them. These elements -- within or outside the government -- worked against the government’s commitments.

The scam surfaced on May 30. Why did the government take an entire week to realise that it needs to lodge criminal cases in the matter?
We are rather in a hurry to know the truth... We have asked our three-member probe panel to complete its inquiry within a fortnight. Also, you can find out all three of them are men of moral repute.

As for what we were doing before ordering the probe, we instantly initiated the process to satisfy ourselves that something was fishy. Now that the results of two toppers have been cancelled, we are at work to identify the conspirators.

When are you going to lodge FIR(s)?
Anytime after June 20, the day our probe panel is to submit its findings to the government.

Influential parents ‘buying’ or ‘managing’ high scores for their undeserving wards are an old phenomenon. A Navbharat Times headline in the late 1980s read ‘Yeh mahaz ittefaq nahin pairvi ki mahima hai’. Don’t you think our education system is flawed – from the primary up to the university levels?
By making such a generalised indictment, the media is not doing any good to the state and its students. I ask you: How many times have you in your newspaper reported that the same examination system had eight lakh of the 15 lakh Class X students and four lakh of the 11 lakh Class XII students flunk these examinations this year? If ours is such a mucky system, how come these many students could not manage things?
Bihar is a big state. But successive governments have made efforts to bring the education system on track by creating infrastructure, hiring manpower… We have just signed an MoU with the World Bank for a Rs 250-crore project to up the qualitative output of our primary teachers.

Coming back to the merit scam, Vishun Roy College of Vaishali district had been in news for wrong reasons in the past…
(Interrupts) Yes, it was on the BSEB’s radar. And we did make arrangements to ensure the fairest examination for its students and the fairest evaluation of their answer-sheets. Yet gadbadi ho gayee.

This ‘gadbadi’ will make people outside Bihar look at even our genuine toppers with suspicion. Can you assure Bihar such faux pas will not recur next year onward?
That’s why I appeal to the media not to amplify things by making generalised statements… This makes things embarrassingly difficult for the state’s meritorious millions when they go outside.
As for the government’s assurance, please look at its intentions. There is no confusion at the level of the government or political leadership. The media, including your TOI, has written about the so-called links of the Vaishali college functionaries and an alliance partner (RJD) of the government. But even the leadership of that ally – and I put it on record – is furious. We are going to make the culprits pay a heavy price for having sinned against the state and its people.

The opposition says your government is out to shield BSEB chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh because he is the husband of a politician belonging to the ruling JD (U)…
Hunh… What shall I say? Let me tell you one last time that no one is above Bihar’s pride, not even Bihar education minister Ashok Choudhary.