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As civil services aspirants continue to protest the "normalisation" in the Bihar Public Service Commission's (BPSC) preliminary test, Patna Police clarified that renowed educator and YouTuber Faizal Khan, also known Khan Sir, was neither detained nor arrested.
A post on social media website X, which was shared from a handle named Khan Global Studies, demanded Mr Khan's release. Dr Anu Kumari, Sub-divisional police officer of Sachiwalaya, called it "baseless, misleading and provocative".
The police statement came a day after police used mild lathicharge to disperse hundreds of protesting aspirants near the BPSC office in Patna, who were demanding withdrawal of "changes" to the rules for the 70th BPSC Preliminary Examination scheduled for December 13. The protesting students are demanding that exams be held in 'One Shift and One Paper' to avoid the normalisation process.
The BPSC, however, denied any changes to the examination process. The lathi charge on protesting candidates further escalated tensions, leading to public outrage and demands for accountability.
Educators like Mr Khan and and Motiur Rahman Khan, known as Guru Rahman, joined the protests, criticising the perceived lack of communication from BPSC and advocating for candidates' rights. However, tensions mounted as Mr Khan was seen going to a police station. Ms Kumari clarified that the educator came to the Gardanibagh police station on his own accord, adding that he was later dropped to his vehicle near Atal Path in a police vehicle on his own request.
While joining the aspirants, Mr Khan had said that with just a week left for exams, it was unfortunate that there was a need to protest for their demands on the "land of Chanakya". "We don't have personal qualms with anyone. The process can be good, but the person implementing it should also be good. Can they assure us that? We will not move from here until normalisation is assured to be removed," he told reporters.
"We request the police administration to understand that your children are also studying here. We also teach them. We believe in the Constitution. That's why we are not protesting on the streets. We reached the Dharna-sthal (protesting site) to protest constitutionally. We will make sure that the normalisation (process) is cancelled. We don't have any expectations from BPSC. We have hopes from the government. We have nothing to do with politics. We will stand with those who will listen to our demands," he added. Mr Khan further demanded an extension of the exam date and the acceptance of forms of students rejected due to discrepancies in the server.
Amid the uproar, the BPSC issued a detailed clarification, stating that the 'normalisation' process is neither mentioned in any clause of the advertisement for the 70th Combined Preliminary Examination nor proposed afterwards. It affirmed that the exam will be conducted in a single shift on December 13, 2024 (Friday), from 12-2 pm, and thus normalisation is irrelevant.
Normalisation is a process aimed at addressing possible variations in the difficulty of different question papers across different shifts of an examination.