Thousands of men have rioted across the Indian state of Bihar this week — setting fire to empty passenger trains and disrupting the services of several rail lines — to express their anger over recent changes to an Indian Railways employee entrance exam they perceived as unfair, Reuters reported on Thursday.
Masses of young men gathered on railroad tracks across seven Bihar cities and districts (Gaya, Patna, Nawada, Madhopur, Sitamarhi, Buxar, and Bhojpur) from January 24 to January 26 to block train traffic and vandalize empty passenger cars. The mobs burned and stoned at least four empty train carriages in the Bihar city of Gaya on January 26, according to reports by the Times of India and New Delhi Television (NDTV).
“A heavy contingent of police failed to control the protesters who squatted on railway tracks, vandalized property, clashed with security forces, and targeted several trains, severely affecting services,” NDTV reported of the rioting in Gaya on January 26.
Authorities in Bihar’s capital city, Patna, have registered police complaints against “400 unnamed people and six institutes involved in coaching students for railways and other jobs” for their alleged connection to the violent uprising, senior Patna government official Chandrashekhar Singh told Reuters by phone on January 27.
The large-scale vandalism and destruction of property in Bihar have instigated unrest in Uttar Pradesh, a state in north-central India bordering Bihar. The state of Bihar is located in northeastern India just nine miles from Bangladesh at its closest point.
“There were also reports of police action against protesters in UP [Uttar Pradesh], with sources indicating there are concerns and inputs that the protests may spread to other parts of the country,” the Times of India reported on January 27.
People gather near a train set on fire by angry mobs in protests over access to railway jobs that have seen police violently disperse crowds with tear gas and baton charges, in Gaya, in the northeast Indian state of Bihar on January 26, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)
The violent outbursts in Bihar this week were responses to recent changes in the state-run India Railways entrance exam for non-technical employees, according to NDTV.
“Students have opposed a decision by the Railways to hold the exam in two stages, claiming that the second stage is unfair to those who have cleared the first stage, results for which were released on January 15,” the news outlet reported.
Some protesters have claimed “only one examination was mentioned in a notification issued in 2019,” according to NDTV.
India’s Ministry of Railway, which administers India Railways, clarified on January 26 “that the second stage exam was clearly mentioned in the [2019] notification,” NDTV relayed.
The railway ministry subsequently issued a press release on January 27 to further clarify any confusion over its entrance exam process in response to unsubstantiated allegations set forth by protesters and rioters this week.
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