Exam paper leak weapon to take away youth's rights, will raise 'BPSC exam scam' in Parliament: Rahul

NEW DELHI: Asserting that exam paper leak is a weapon to take away the rights of youth, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that such incidents are happening everyday in BJP-ruled states and vowed to raise the issue of protesting BPSC aspirants in Parliament.

Days after visiting the site of the nearly month-old agitation in Patna against alleged irregularities in the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) exam and spending time with aggrieved students, Gandhi shared on his YouTube channel a video of his interaction with the protesting students.

In his post in Hindi accompanying the video, Gandhi said he discussed serious issues when he recently met the students, who suffered due to the " BPSC exam scam " in Bihar and faced a lathi-charge by the police.

The students revealed the labyrinth of this paper leak and exam scam in full detail, he said. "Whether the candidates get the question papers or not, they definitely go viral on social media. Candidates are trapped in vicious circles like normalization and scaling so that they cannot even know the guarantee of their employment from their scores," the former Congress chief said.

Over 4 lakh aspirants affected

The students protesting in a Gandhian way were brutally lathi-charged and after that, cases after cases were forcibly filed against them, Gandhi said. "There was rigging in 28 examination centres but the government is not ready to accept it. This video is the voice of thousands of students who are demanding justice and re-examination. After listening to them, I have promised to raise their demands in Parliament - this is not just a problem of Bihar but of the entire country, it is the problem of every aspiring youth," Gandhi said. "I will not let the thumbs of these Eklavyas be cut off," he added.

In the video, students explain to Gandhi how the leaked question papers did the rounds on social media and they were beaten up by the police for protesting peacefully. Gandhi assures them of raising their issue in Parliament after hearing their grievances and demands.

Protesters demand justice

Gandhi on Saturday had expressed his backing for the protests against alleged irregularities in BPSC exams by visiting the site of the nearly a month-old agitation here and spending several minutes with aggrieved students. After Gandhi winded up his pre-decided engagements in Patna on Saturday, a delegation of students had called on him at a hotel. The delegation then urged him to visit Gardani Bagh where several aspirants have been on a round-the-clock protest seeking cancellation of the Combined Competitive Exam held last month.

Notably, over four lakh candidates had appeared for the exams at more than 900 centres across the state on December 13 when hundreds boycotted the test alleging that question papers had been leaked.

The BPSC denied the allegations but ordered re-examination for more than 12,000 candidates who had been assigned Bapu Pariksha Parisar in the city, evoking resentment among other aspirants who have contended that they were being deprived of a "level playing field".