00:00Another day, another student protest, this time in Patna.
00:03The BPSC aspirants have once again taken to the streets,
00:07turning their anger against the Bihar government
00:09over alleged irregularities in the examination and recruitment process.
00:13Hundreds of students marched from the Gandhi Meidan
00:15towards Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary's residence,
00:18turning their demands into a direct confrontation with the administration.
00:22The march intensified as protesters pushed through the police barricades
00:27and continued towards the Chief Minister's residence.
00:29Police moved in to stop them.
00:31Water cannons were used, they were deployed.
00:34Lathi charge followed as well at multiple points
00:37and several protesters were even detained.
00:40Now, what is the issue this time around?
00:42The heart of the matter seems to be the BPSC exam.
00:47And the agitation is surrounding the 70th BPSC examination.
00:53The aspirants are demanding its cancellation and reconduct,
00:56citing alleged irregularities in seeking a process, they say,
01:00which is transparent and credible.
01:02But the demands go beyond BPSC as well.
01:05They want changes to the teacher's examination process
01:08with greater transparency in recruitment as well.
01:10And they are demanding that the professor appointments follow the UGC rules.
01:16The confrontation comes after students' representations had held a conversation
01:21with the Bihar government already.
01:22But despite those discussions being described as positive,
01:26the protesters had to get on the road today,
01:30signalling that assurances have not been resolved and the dispute still remains.
01:34For thousands of aspirants, this is about more than one examination.
01:38It is about fair recruitment, transparent rules and certainly clarity over what their career holds.
01:49Well, see, let me clarify, there are two protests that are going on at this point of time.
01:55One protest and the movement is going on at the Dharna site in Gardani Bagh in Patna,
02:01where the aspirants of TRE4 are sitting on a Dharna with their demand.
02:06And they are demanding that the examination that will be taking place from here on,
02:11only a single examination should be taken and not two examinations,
02:16that is the prelims and the mains examination.
02:18And they are also protesting against the negative marking
02:21that is right now going on as far as the examination of TRE4 is concerned.
02:28But those aspirants of TRE4, they are not part of the protest march that is going on today.
02:34Those TRE4 aspirants are sitting at the Gardani Bagh Dharna site.
02:38But this is a different protest that is going on.
02:41These students, these aspirants are demanding that the 70th BPSC examination
02:45that was conducted between 2024 and 2025,
02:49and the final results of which, in fact, was declared in June 2026,
02:54in a couple of months back,
02:56and more than 2,000 candidates have been selected.
02:58They are claiming that the entire exercise, the entire examination process was rigged,
03:04and paper leak happened, and they are claiming,
03:06and that is why they are demanding that the entire examination should be cancelled.
03:10But the BPSC, which had conducted that examination,
03:14has clearly stated that there is no question of cancelling the 70th BPSC examination that has taken place.
03:20And that is why, with this demand,
03:22these protesters are on the streets of Patna today.
03:25Back to you.
03:27All right, and Rohit Singh also joins us live for more details on this story.
03:30Rohit, help me understand this.
03:33Now, the last couple of days we've seen the protests take place,
03:36we saw people like Tejasvi, Adav, and the rest of them also join in the protesters,
03:42which made it feel like it's a bit of a political protest.
03:45Today, as you see the protests unfold,
03:49are these genuine Gen Z people that you see on the streets,
03:52or would you say these protests also are political in nature?
03:59No, see, today's protest was not definitely a political protest,
04:04because today we saw that there were no RJD leaders or RJD supporters
04:10who were there in this entire protest,
04:12or maybe anyone from the Congress.
04:13So today it was fairly that the students were on the streets of Patna.
04:19There could be some antisocial elements who could have come and joined the protest.
04:24That is a different thing.
04:25But there was nothing political as far as today's protest march was concerned.
04:30And for almost five hours today, Patna came to a standstill because of this march that went on.
04:38And I would say that the government also showed a lot of restraint,
04:43because there were absolutely no instructions, no directions,
04:47that any sort of lathe charge or the use of force should be used against the students.
04:52And that is why we saw that only water cannon was used.
04:55No heavy lathe charge was done, and no tear gas shells were used.
05:00And so for almost five hours, it was a struggle that went on the streets of Patna
05:05between these protesters and the police and administration.
05:10And now that this protest is over,
05:12but remains to be seen as to what the government is planning to do from here on next,
05:17because the government and the BPSE has already clarified
05:20that there will be no cancellation of the 70th BPSE,
05:24the examination which has already been conducted,
05:26the results of which are already out,
05:28and the selection of candidates also having taken place.
05:32So there was no point in, and there was no, in fact,
05:36nothing in the pipeline to cancel the examination.
05:38But these protesters are demanding that there was a lot of wrongdoing
05:43and paper leak and cheating that happened, what they are alleging,
05:46and that they are demanding that the entire examination process
05:50that has taken over the last two years should be cancelled.
05:53Back to you.
05:54All right, Rohit, thanks so much for joining us.
05:56If you're seeing this, I mean, one thing I have to say here
05:58is that it's becoming a pattern now across the country,
06:00across different states.
06:02Every time there's an issue, we see mobilization of youth happen.
06:06And like Rohit was reporting over there,
06:08it looks like today's protest in Patna
06:10did not have political parties behind it.
06:12This looks like actual young people, Gen Z,
06:17getting together and asking,
06:19not being satisfied with the way the examination was actually held.
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