Bihar music exam topper fails to explain Mukhda'

Patna: A year after toppers scam exposed the existence of education mafia in Bihar, another topper Ganesh Kumar’s marks stirred a controversy on Thursday.

Humanities topper Ganesh had opted for music as one of his subjects but was seen struggling to find answers to some very basic questions.

Ganesh was asked to speak about classical Hindustani music and was also asked to explain the meaning of “Antara and Mukhda” to which he said, “I don’t remember now what it means,” and also couldn’t play musical instruments properly.

Ganesh Kumar who hails from Jharkhand had taken admission in Ram Nandan Singh Jagdeep Narayan College in Samastipur. He has secured 65 marks out of 70 in the practical exam in the music course and 18 out of 30 marks in the theory paper.

Questions were also raised about Ganesh Kumar’s age, the date of birth he had mentioned in his admission form was June 2, 1993, which means he has turned 24. The result has also surprised his school teachers who said, “Even we had not expected such kind of result from a student of this institution.” Sources from Samastipur said that Ganesh Kumar’s school cancelled the felicitation program on Thursday following the controversy.

BSEB chairman, Anand Kishore, who had earlier claimed that stringent measures were taken during the Class XII examination, on Thursday refused to even order an enquiry into the matter.

He said, “There will be no changes in the toppers list. Toppers were declared after proper evaluation of answer sheets”.

Education minister Ashok Chaudhary also defended the arts topper Ganesh Kumar and said that “Questioning a topper like this is not proper as even BSEB chairman has said that the evaluation was carried out in the proper manner. Those who asked questions were also not experts in music.” Out of the total 12,40,168 students, 7,94,622 students failed Class XII exam.