Patna: The scene outside the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) office on Friday resembled a battlefield with thousands of civil service aspirants protesting the potential use of the controversial "normalization" process in the upcoming Integrated 70th Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination.
The aspirants, who had gathered in large numbers, were demanding written confirmation from the BPSC that normalisation would not be applied in the exam scheduled for December 13. However, their protest was met with heavy resistance from the police, who resorted to baton charging, injuring several candidates, including two women and their leader, Dileep Kumar, who was hospitalised under police detention. "Two candidates sustained head injuries, including Dileep," said a protesting student.
Despite the injuries, the candidates did not back down. They marched towards Gardanibagh after 2.30pm, continuing their protest until their demands were heard. The police, on the other hand, insisted they were dispersing the crowd because the location was not designated for protests, stating that the aspirants could protest at the designated site.
The candidates had gathered from across Bihar and neighbouring states, voicing their concern over the "normalisation process", which they believed would lead to unfair scoring. The normalisation process, used to account for variations in difficulty across different exam shifts, involves adjusting scores if one set of questions is perceived as easier or harder than others. In essence, if candidates in one shift score below average, their scores may be adjusted upwards to align with those from another shift where candidates perform better.
The aspirants strongly opposed this system. They argued that a general knowledge-based exam should award marks purely based on individual performance, not by comparing different exam shifts. "If marks are awarded based on sessions, it will affect other candidates' scores," said a protesting candidate. They feared that such a system could lead to unfair advantages, undermining the integrity of the exam process.
However, the BPSC maintained that the normalisation process was designed to ensure fairness across shifts, especially when exams are held in multiple sessions. "If candidates score fewer marks in one session, while candidates in another session score higher, the first session's scores will be increased by considering the second session easier," said a BPSC spokesperson. The commission added that the normalisation process was not aimed at creating any unfair advantage but was meant to smoothen the exam's conduct.
Despite these reassurances, the aspirants remained unconvinced. "Why are they giving three different sets of question papers for a single sitting examination when they claim no normalisation will be used for the exam?" asked Nitish Kumar Singh from Gaya. "Certainly, some sort of backdoor planning is going on," he added, expressing doubts about the transparency of the process.
The protests also included other demands, such as reopening the exam form link for the 90,000 candidates who had been unable to fill out the form due to technical issues on the BPSC website between Oct 30 and Nov 4. "We also demand the exam form link be reopened and the exam dates be extended to January 15 as a lot of our precious time has been wasted," said Gaurav, another aspirant.
BPSC, however, clarified that the normalisation process had not yet been officially announced. Secretary Satya Prakash Sharma said, "If normalisation was to be applied, then the commission would have mentioned it in the notification or issued a separate notice in this regard."
Despite this clarification, the protesters were firm in their stance that they would not call off the protest until the BPSC provided a clear, written assurance. "Why is BPSC not coming forth with a written note declaring no normalisation in the upcoming prelims exam? We cannot trust verbal assurance," said Karan Kumar, another aspirant.