Media has opened Pandora’s Box by playing role of executive, judiciary
Soroor Ahmed
By putting the cart before the horse the media, whether intentionally or otherwise, has opened a Pandora’s Box. Instead of raising questions as to how both the Arts and Science toppers––besides several other high-rankers––are from the same Vishun Roy College of Vaishali district, TV journalists started playing the role of examiners.
What is strange is the panic reaction of the state’s education minister Ashok Chaudhary and officials of the Bihar School Examination Board. They asked both the toppers––besides a dozen more––to appear for test and interview after they failed to answer oral questions asked by TV journalists.
Their results were put on hold and subsequently cancelled after they did not fare well in the interview conducted by BSEB on June 3. The Arts topper Ruby Rai did not appear for interview.
The issue has raised some complicated questions, which will have its legal ramifications too.
Under which rule is the BSEB taking these decisions? Just on the basis of TV interview.
Why did not the Board put on hold the results before releasing them when it was in the full knowledge that almost all the top positions were occupied by Vishun Roy College. After all this College is not like Netarhat (now in Jharkhand) or Simultalah School of Jamui. Students of these two schools usually occupy all the top 10 positions in Class-X exams of the respective state boards.
Why the Board authorities did not cross-check the results when the fact is that in the last one decade it has produced many toppers. Besides, the daughter of its director-cum-principal (Amit Kumar alias Bahcha Rai) topped in 2015.
So if the BSEB officials are facing the heat may one ask a very pertinent question: What was the media doing all these years when these facts were well-known?
A few years back eight of the 10 students who topped the Board exam came from a school situated in the native village of a top bureaucrat of Bihar. A large number of mediapersons were aware of this story yet they chose to ignore it for very obvious reasons.
How can the media counter the allegation levelled by Grand Alliance leaders that they are doing these stories simply because Nitish is not with the BJP.
Instead of highlighting these gross irregularities then the media allowed the drift to continue.
When some years back Bihar Times questioned the manner in which un-qualified para-teachers were being appointed, these very modern-day crusaders in the Press were applauding the state government’s move to recruit teachers without any test or interview.
In contrast last year they highlighted a photo of mass copying in the same Vaishaili district in such a way as if nothing like this had happened in Bihar in the last 50 years.
When the percentage of those who passed Class-X fell by over 28 per cent this year due to strictness in examination the media, instead of praising the state government, started filing stories about the poor quality of teachers. But why not they raised the issue when they were being appointed?
Anyway today the state government has been caught in the situation created by the media. Legally it is not on the strong footing as judges do not give its judgement on the basis of television footage.
Now that the BSEB has cancelled the results of some of those who have been interviewed on June 3 the another question is: How can you judge the talent of any student by suddenly calling him to appear in an interview. Is it something like kangaroo court giving its ruling?
The panic-stricken state government has in hurry announced that in future interviews of all the toppers would be held before releasing result. Does the authorities know what are they doing? Would not it open another floodgate of corruption?
If legislature should not intervene into judiciary and judiciary should not function like an executive––the NEET case has once again raised this issue––the Fourth Pillar of the democracy, that is media, too can not play the role of executive as well as judiciary.
Had the media exposed the story of irregularities in the examination it would have been well within its duty, but by virtually becoming examiner it has become an executive. This is followed by the media trial and a sort of witch-hunting.
By acting within hours of the TV interview of toppers the state government has not done anything good.
Mind it two wrongs do not make one right.
This historic blunder by the media will play havoc in the country as now after every result some TV reporters would approach the toppers to ask a couple of questions. If they fail to answer then the state government will be forced to put on hold the result and call the candidates for interview and may be subsequently compelled to cancel the result. The whole system would come to a stand still and nothing good would come out.
Their results were put on hold and subsequently cancelled after they did not fare well in the interview conducted by BSEB on June 3. The Arts topper Ruby Rai did not appear for interview.
The issue has raised some complicated questions, which will have its legal ramifications too.
Under which rule is the BSEB taking these decisions? Just on the basis of TV interview.
Why did not the Board put on hold the results before releasing them when it was in the full knowledge that almost all the top positions were occupied by Vishun Roy College. After all this College is not like Netarhat (now in Jharkhand) or Simultalah School of Jamui. Students of these two schools usually occupy all the top 10 positions in Class-X exams of the respective state boards.
Why the Board authorities did not cross-check the results when the fact is that in the last one decade it has produced many toppers. Besides, the daughter of its director-cum-principal (Amit Kumar alias Bahcha Rai) topped in 2015.
So if the BSEB officials are facing the heat may one ask a very pertinent question: What was the media doing all these years when these facts were well-known?
A few years back eight of the 10 students who topped the Board exam came from a school situated in the native village of a top bureaucrat of Bihar. A large number of mediapersons were aware of this story yet they chose to ignore it for very obvious reasons.
How can the media counter the allegation levelled by Grand Alliance leaders that they are doing these stories simply because Nitish is not with the BJP.
Instead of highlighting these gross irregularities then the media allowed the drift to continue.
When some years back Bihar Times questioned the manner in which un-qualified para-teachers were being appointed, these very modern-day crusaders in the Press were applauding the state government’s move to recruit teachers without any test or interview.
In contrast last year they highlighted a photo of mass copying in the same Vaishaili district in such a way as if nothing like this had happened in Bihar in the last 50 years.
When the percentage of those who passed Class-X fell by over 28 per cent this year due to strictness in examination the media, instead of praising the state government, started filing stories about the poor quality of teachers. But why not they raised the issue when they were being appointed?
Anyway today the state government has been caught in the situation created by the media. Legally it is not on the strong footing as judges do not give its judgement on the basis of television footage.
Now that the BSEB has cancelled the results of some of those who have been interviewed on June 3 the another question is: How can you judge the talent of any student by suddenly calling him to appear in an interview. Is it something like kangaroo court giving its ruling?
The panic-stricken state government has in hurry announced that in future interviews of all the toppers would be held before releasing result. Does the authorities know what are they doing? Would not it open another floodgate of corruption?
If legislature should not intervene into judiciary and judiciary should not function like an executive––the NEET case has once again raised this issue––the Fourth Pillar of the democracy, that is media, too can not play the role of executive as well as judiciary.
Had the media exposed the story of irregularities in the examination it would have been well within its duty, but by virtually becoming examiner it has become an executive. This is followed by the media trial and a sort of witch-hunting.
By acting within hours of the TV interview of toppers the state government has not done anything good.
Mind it two wrongs do not make one right.
This historic blunder by the media will play havoc in the country as now after every result some TV reporters would approach the toppers to ask a couple of questions. If they fail to answer then the state government will be forced to put on hold the result and call the candidates for interview and may be subsequently compelled to cancel the result. The whole system would come to a stand still and nothing good would come out.