With the BJP on the back foot over Bihar’s caste-based survey, the Janata Dal-United JD(U) supremo and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led State government is set to achieve another milestone ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha elections by distributing job letters to 1.22 lakh newly recruited teachers as part of its commitment to provide 10 lakh jobs. A high profile event is being organised at Gandhi Maidan, historic venue of political rallies in Bihar, on November 2, when 25,000 candidates will gather to receive their recruitment letters in the presence of Mr. Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, and other State Cabinet Ministers.
Earlier, all 1.22 lakh appointees were expected to gather for the event but the Education Department subsequently issued a new direction that the remaining 97,000 teachers would receive their appointment letters in their respective districts via video conferencing on the same day.
The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) carried out the teachers’ recruitment for Classes 1 to 5 (primary), and Classes 9 to 12 (higher secondary).
Unemployment was the biggest poll issue in the 2020 Assembly election in Bihar. Mr. Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) received a tremendous response for highlighting the issue in his campaign, during which he promised 10 lakh government jobs. The RJD went on to become single-largest party in the State Assembly. Later, Mr. Kumar promised to provide employment to 20 lakh youth. With the large-scale teacher appointments, Mr. Kumar hopes to convey that his government is serious about creating job opportunities within the State.
The upcoming event is also a show of strength for the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) government as similar to the event organised by the former Bihar Chief Minister, the late Karpoori Thakur, in 1977, when he had distributed job letters to 10,000 doctors and engineers at Gandhi Maidan.
BJP State president Samrat Chaudhary, however, termed the teachers’ recruitment a scam. “There is a big scam in the name of providing jobs. A promise was made to provide jobs to lakhs of people but in reality only a few will get jobs because most of them have already been recruited. This is a mockery of democracy and the government of Nitish Kumar is playing with the emotions of teacher aspirants,” Mr. Choudhary alleged. Earlier, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had also promised to provide employment to 19 lakh youth.
Soon after the list of successful candidates was released by the BPSC, hundreds of aspiring teachers protested in front of its office, alleging irregularities in the selection process.
Bihar has a sizable population of unemployed youth. According to the Bihar Institute of Public Finance and Policy (BIPFP), an autonomous body under the State’s Finance Department, 42% of Bihar’s population are youth (up to 35 years of age). The caste-based survey report has already led to the demand for a nationwide caste census and judicial discourse on reconsidering the 50% ceiling on total reservation in education and in government jobs.
“Distributing jobs to more than one lakh people is being done at the time when employment is the biggest concern among the youth, especially Bihar, where resources are limited and people are scared of losing jobs due to retrenchment in every sector. I think the mahagathbandhan government is trying to set an agenda before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the 2025 Assembly election in Bihar by providing jobs to the masses,” Patna-based political analyst Sanjay Kumar said.
“The caste-based survey report has already weakened the force of Hindutva in the country and the State. It has started a debate the composition and shares of [various] castes. The recruitment of over 1 lakh teachers will push the BJP another step behind,“ Dr. Kumar added.
Bakshi Amit Kumar Sinha, Assistant Professor, BIPFP, concurred. “We have to consider this move from a multi-dimensional point of view. First, it will improve the human development index, in which we [Bihar] are really poor. Recruitment of teachers is a major step on the education front to improve the quality of teaching in Bihar. Mass-level teacher recruitment will also improve the education system in rural areas, which is presently not in good shape,” Dr. Sinha said.
“Bihar is a State with a young population, where employment is the biggest issue, so this move would be a strong step towards resolving it. Employment will bring inclusive growth and multiply the economy. No doubt the present government will get political benefit from this because providing jobs was one of the promises mentioned in their manifesto,” he added.
