Patna,(BiharTimes): The district is home to internationally acclaimed, Nalanda University, the brainchild of former President A P J Abdul Kalam.

Then there are Nalanda Open University, Nalanda College, Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, and a number of hostels and coaching institutes named after it.

Yet Nalanda has made its ‘mark’ in the field of education in the last couple of decades. From Ranjit Don to Lalkeshwar Prasad Sinha and Usha Sinha, all these so-called educationists hail from this district. Not only that, when CAT and railway exam question papers were leaked in Mumbai and Lucknow some years back their roots were traced somewhere in Nalanda district.

Ranjit Don’s case is known throughout the country––even outside. Himself a former medical student, he was considered as a mastermind of medical entrance test leak racket. Though he was caught by the CBI in 2003 the ‘beneficiaries’ of his misdeeds are spread all over the country. Reportedly he made hundreds of crores by facilitating thousands of undeserving doctors, engineers, MBAs and bankers to get into mainstream. He proved that no examination system in our country is foolproof .In spite of his alleged role, he was wooed by a couple of NDA constituents at different point of time. He even unsuccessfully contested election.

It is said that he used to donate generously to different political parties.

What is shocking is that in the 2015 Bihar legislative council election he was put up as a candidate by the Lok Janshakti Party and also enjoyed the support of the BJP. However, he could not make it to the Upper House.

The irony is that the BJP supported his candidature even though he was the kingpin of CAT, AIIMS and CBSE medical entrance paper leaks. His name even figured in Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh.

It is other thing that the present chief minister Nitish Kumar belongs to the same district. When Don was caught the Nalanda parliamentary constituency was represented in Lok Sabha by the then NDA convenor, George Fernandes.

Soon Nalanda became engineering producing district too.

However, after this episode, Nitish Kumar, as the CM of Bihar did try to remove the tarnished image of the district.

As Nalanda Medical College and Hospital is situated in Patna he got a government medical college opened in Pawapuri. An engineering college was opened in Chandi.

Nitish actively cooperated in the revival of Nalanda University. Though it was the idea of the then President and the Manmohan Singh government took up the work Nitish tried to show to the people of the state as if it is his government’s project.

It is other thing that the project failed to keep up its pace and its Chancellor Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen quit after Narendra Modi became the prime minister.

Of late, Nalanda is not in the news for very good reason. The outgoing chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board, Lalkeshwar Prasad Sinha, one of the main accused in the toppers scam hails from the district. Till lately he was considered close to the chief minister Nitish Kumar’s ruling Janata Dal (United).

His wife, Usha Sinha, who has been made a non-FIR accused in the case is the former party MLA from Hilsa. She could not get ticket this time because, after the seat-sharing arrangement Hilsa went to the quota of RJD. Its candidate Shakti Yadav won the seat in 2015.

The husband-wife duo has become a great embarrassment for the present chief minister. Lalkeshwar was formerly principal of Patna College while Usha served in Hindi department in College of Commerce, a premier college of Magadh University.

Thus Nalanda has gradually replaced Begusarai as the district where education mafia had flourished. Incidentally, Begusarai too was the home-turf of the first chief minister of Bihar, Shri Krishna Sinha.