It’s January 3rd. Today marks the 16th day since the students who appeared for the 70th Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination, held in December of last year, started protesting. The protests originated from the Bapu Pariksha Parisar in Patna, where students alleged that gross irregularities were present during the conduct of the exam.

BPSC did announce a retest for all the students who appeared at that center; however, protesting students are demanding that the test be conducted once again for all and that the earlier results be canceled. Conducting the exam is no small feat—mind you, 3.28 lakh students appeared for the test in December, some of whom do not want to appear for the test again. They are, in fact, writing to the BPSC Chairman and requesting that the exam not be reconducted for all. However, the protests continue. Today, Independent MP from Purnea, Rajesh Ranjan, alias Pappu Yadav, announced a bandh, staging a “rail roko” protest in Araria. Jan Suraaj chief Prashant Kishor, an analyst turned politician, has announced a fast-unto-death over the demand for BPSC cancellation.

The anger of the students is understandable. While the protests initially started on December 19, they took a serious turn when the police exerted far too much aggression on the students, as the students have complained. Visuals emerging from the site do seem to grant credibility to the students’ claims. One should not applaud the strength of the police if the people they have reprimanded are students, who survive on close to nothing.

This is not the first time a student protest has taken place in Bihar. Data shows that between 2018 and 2022, 400 student protests occurred in the state, second only to Kerala, which saw 510 student protests during the same period. In Bihr, as the instances of paper leaks and irregularities in exams have increased, so have the protests. In 2023, there was a paper leak in the constable recruitment examination. In 2024, a total of three question paper leak incidents occurred in Bihar, including the BPSC Teachers Recruitment Examination (TRE) Phase 3. More notably, the NEET UG Paper Leak happened in May, further intensified the anger among students. The results of the 2024 NEET-UG exam, held on May 5 and attended by nearly 24 lakh aspiring medical professionals, were plagued by allegations of leaked question papers and incorrectly awarded ‘grace marks.’ Questions started emerging when a high number of students scored a perfect score of 720—six of whom studied at the same coaching center. A month after the protests first began, the mastermind, Amit Anand, based in Bihar, confessed to leaking the paper along with three accomplices.

Bihar has a serious problem with paper leaks. A nexus allegedly comprising some coaching mafias, corrupt officials, and other miscreants is responsible for these malpractices. In June 2024, the Bihar Legislative Assembly passed a bill to punish the criminals. All crimes under this law have become non-bailable, and there are stringent provisions such as imprisonment terms of three to five years and a fine of Rs. 10 lakh. However, it is clear that the law has scared no one.

Bihar holds significantly fewer employment opportunities for its youth than do other states. In November 2000, when the state of Jharkhand was formed from the southern districts of Bihar, the new Bihar was left with a meager industrial base. The share of industries operating in the state was only 1.5 percent of the total number of industries in India in 2015-16 (GoB, 2018-19). The Gross Value Added (GVA) as a percentage of Gross Value Output (GVO) was only 12.7 percent, much lower than that of Telangana (24.1 percent), which was created 14 years after Jharkhand. Bihar’s labor absorption capacity is also much lower than the national level. In 2015-16, the total employment in industries in Bihar was 1.19 lakh, which is only 0.8 percent of the total employment in industries across all Indian states. Bihar’s economy is still dependent on agriculture—though it accounted for only 21% of the state’s GDP in 2021, agriculture remains the main source of income for nearly 74% of Bihar’s workforce. This leaves government jobs as the only viable career option for the state’s aspirational youth.

As the cold becomes crueler, the fire becomes stronger. For the students of Bihar, the protests are a fight for fairness in a state where opportunities are scarce. Ignoring their aspirations will only deepen the discontent.