Ruby Rai, who topped in the Arts stream with 89 per cent marks in Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) exam and shot into the limelight after she was reportedly found completely clueless about her subjects, skipped a retest on Friday. However, 13 other toppers appeared for a retest and interview by the BSEB.
The entire controversy erupted following her TV interview in which she said “prodical” science was one of her subjects which dealt with cooking. In “prodical” (read political science) she secured 91 marks.
Science topper Saurabh Shrestha, who was initially reluctant to appear in the retest, however, turned up at the last minute. He too had given shocking answers to simple question put up by the correspondent of a TV channel. Interestingly, both Ruby and Saurabh were students of Vishnu Rai College of Bhagwanpur in Vaishali district.
All the 13 toppers underwent a written test in order to compare their handwritings with those on their original answer books. Then, each of them was interviewed individually by a panel of 12 experts of different subjects.
Vishnu Rai College deputy director Nand Kishore Yadav gave different versions to explain the absence of Ruby. Some of these were — she is not well; she is in depression; she is away from home and could not get reservation to reach Patna.
He said her father had duly informed the BSEB authorities about the inability of her daughter to appear. In a newspaper interview, Ruby’s grandfather Munshi Prasad Rai was quoted as saying that she along with her father went to Jamshedpur to attend a marriage. But he admitted that Ruby did not deserve to become topper and she had passed Class X exam with second division.
BSEB Chairman lalkeshwar Prasad had earlier declared that if the toppers called for retest do not appear their result would be cancelled.
Even as Bihar Education Minister Ashok Chaudhary announced that every year the toppers would be required to appear for interview, the Centre has decided to seek a report from the Bihar Government about the dubious toppers.
Union Minister of State for Education Upendra Kushwaha said the Centre would issue an advisory to take stringent measures to stop malpractices in the exams conducted by the BSEB. “It is because of such incidents that even genuine degrees of Bihar are viewed with suspicion outside. It lowers the image of Bihar,” said Kushwaha.
The Vishnu Rai College, which has the dubious distinction of giving toppers almost every year, is also under lens.
There are many questions raised about this college owned by Amit Kumar, alias Bachcha Rai, who is close to RJD leadership. While all the copies of the Vaishali district for science had been sent to Sasaram and Bhabua and copies of arts to Ara for evaluation, the copies of only this college were evaluated in Patna. The evaluation was done under the supervision of the experts of BSEB. The evaluation centres in each district were being monitored by the DMs concerned but the Patna centre where the copies of this college were evaluated was under the control of BSEB.
The BSEB chairman Singh pleaded that since this college had been in controversy last year too “we were keeping a close vigil on this college and so all its copies were examined in Patna.”
It is possible that due to high political connection of this college, no action was ever taken. last year college principal’s daughter had topped in arts stream. The academic qualification of the principal Bachcha Rai too is under scanner. After failing to clear Intermediate exam for two years, he passed in 1999. In the same year, he became principal on the basis of alleged fake certificate.