By Arun Srivastava
In the land of scams, yet another scam, and this time the “rank scam” has surfaced with a bang. A caucus of politicians, bureaucrats and unscrupulous businessmen has been running the show for some years now. The unscrupulous activities of the caucus or education mafia in common parlance, might not have come to peoples’ knowledge, if the rank scam was not exposed.
The operation of the caucus would start at the admission level when they lure the students with the promise of a bright job opportunity and a shining future. They would charge a sum of Rs 50,000 from aspiring candidates at the time of admission. In case of girl students, the charge was a bit higher keeping in view the needs of the marriage market. But in some cases the operators were considerate towards the girl students as educating girls would add to brochures.
The caucus controlling the education in Bihar ensured that the Intermediate merit lists in Bihar were manipulated. They have been working in a systematic manner for at least six years to deny the genuine meritorious students their due. There is no denying the fact that the clout and the grip of the caucus on the education department became more firm and effective after launching of the Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyan. The scheme provided them with the right ambience and opportunity to loot the exchequer on the plea of empowering poor, especially the women, the core group of Nitish Kumar.
Though the government statistics claim that the state has performed miracle in making not less than 70 per cent of the children literate the latest expose, the “rank scam”, makes it explicit that the claims are not based on facts and are indeed dubious in nature and content.
The scam might not have been exposed had the 13 rank holders in Arts and Science streams of Bihar Board not appeared before an expert’s team for authentication of the marks obtained by them in the wake of a media exposes pointing fingers at their merit. Interesting the two toppers Ruby Rai and Saurabh Kumar from Vishnu Rai college failed to answer. Ruby pronounced Political Science as ‘Prodigal Science’ and described it as a subject related to cooking in a video. Even Saurabh, the science topper, was unaware of electron and proton. Saurabh had secured 485 out of 500 marks. Rai had secured 444 marks out of 500 in the Arts stream
V R College has a 100 per cent result in the Class 12 exams every year. Students from rural areas and from lower middle class backgrounds, seek admission to the college. The college is managed by Baccha Rai, a person close to Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar and Union Minister Giriraj Singh. The officials of Bihar School Examination Board confess that all 1,007 students of the college secured first class in the Class 12 exam. This is amazing. Significantly 222 of them got identical marks. In fact last year, the BSEB was forced to review the results of the college following uproar over 200 Class 12 science students writing identical answers.
The picture of Bachcha Rai with Nitish Kumar sparked fresh buzz about the scam-accused principal’s wide-ranging political connections. Incidentally all the top politicians have been trying to disown him, but the fact remains that he is the product of the political system of the state. The modus operandi of the owner Bachcha Rai has been quite simple. He would befriend the chairman of the BSEB and he in turn would do all the leg works for Rai. Even the inquiry committee set up earlier gave a clean chit to the college. Former BSEB chairman A K P Yadav said the results of college were stayed five to six years ago after questions were raised in the Bihar assembly over its students’ high scores.
In fact over a dozen politicians are in this business. Former minister and strongman RJD MLA Surender Yadav owns two colleges in Gaya district. Another former RJD MLA Mahesh Singh Yadav runs an unaided private college in Gaya. Several BJP, JD-U , RJD, Congress and Lok Janshakti Party leaders own unaided private colleges in the state. They use their political clout and connection to promote their education business.
After this controversy, Bihar Education Minister Ashok Choudhary admitted to the presence of an ‘education mafia’ in the state. Last year, 459 of 463 students of the SNNR College in Begusarai district and 582 of 601 students of the BRS Mahila College in Samastipur district got a first class. All 127 students of the Iraki Girls Intermediate School in Nawada district and 63 students of the St Teresa Balika High School in Bettiah district scored a first class.
The numbers of students with high scores from such colleges saw a significant rise after Bihar government linking students’ performance to funding. It was a part of the government’s decision to provide incentives to unaided schools and colleges, but the scheme was misused. Under the scheme an unaided private college gets Rs 4,000 annually for every candidate securing a first class, Rs 3,500 for every second class result and Rs 3,000 for third class results.
Of the 63 students who made it to the Intermediate Arts merit list in the last three years (2014-16), only one is from Patna. During the same period, just six students of the state capital made it to the Intermediate Science toppers’ list which comprised of 80 students in all. In Intermediate Commerce out of 45 only 11 were from Patna. Unaided private colleges mushrooming across the state are experts in ensuring high scores for their students. Many times, the same college produces state toppers in all subjects. Most of the private colleges are managed by powerful leaders from different political parties. After the exposure of the scam Bachha Rai surrendered to the police. Police has registered against four students Sourabh Shrestha, Rahul Kumar, Ruby Rai, Shalini and director Rai.
The investigation in the scam has revealed that in case of Vishun Roy College, the BSEB chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad had himself taken personal interest in ensuring special favours were granted to the students from whom hefty sums had been obtained for delivering the desired results. It was at the directives of the Prasad the examination centre of V R College was shifted to some other school. The matter was investigated by the District Magistrate but no action was taken. Prasad has been too close to Nitish. Incidentally he is absconding to evade arrest in the case. Lalkeshwar Prasad resigned from his post after his name figured in the rank scam.
The most colourful academic career has been of Usha Sinha, wife of Lalkeshwar. Sinha is also untraceable like her husband. She is the principal of the Ganga Devi College. The cops claimed that the detained college clerk, Dev Narayan Singh, had revealed “startling facts”. The police have come to know that the answer sheets of the toppers came to the Ganga Devi Women’s College. Sinha who has been a JD(U) legislator claimed in her affidavit filed in 2010 that she passed her matriculation examination from the UP board in 1969. In the same affidavit, she had said that her age (in 2010) was 49 years. That means she was born in 1961 and that she was just eight years old when she passed her matriculation, 10 years old when she passed her Intermediate and got her BEd degree when she was only 13. In addition, according to the affidavit, she got her master’s degree at age 15 from Avadh University in 1976.
Though Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has assured that stringent action will be taken against the culprits, doubts remain as the accused have got political links and the tentacles of the scam are spread too wide. (IPA Service)