Patna: Even as the mass cheating during the ongoing Grade 10 board examination in Bihar has invited widespread ridicule, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad has stirred fresh controversy by openly supporting cheating.

“I saw the people climbing up walls of multi-storied school buildings like lizards just to pass on cheat sheets to the students. Had it been the RJD government, we would have ourselves handed out books to them to cheat,” Prasad, whose party is lending outside support to the ruling Nitish Kumar government, told a public function in central Bihar’s Buxur district on Sunday evening.

Justifying his logic, Prasad said even after being allowed to use books in the examination halls, only those students would have written the answers who had studied the books.

He also slammed the Nitish Kumar government for failing to check cheating at the examination centres and questioned the masses’ move to get rid of the RJD government when the present situation hardly remained changed in the present regime. The opposition had widely publicised the 15-year-old regime of the RJD as akin to “Jungle Raj” (jungle rule).

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reacted bitterly to the remarks by the RJD chief and said Lalu’s statement was a true depiction of the “Jungle Rule” which has resurfaced post electoral alliance between the RJD and the ruling Janata Dal (United) headed by chief minister Kumar.

“The RJD chief’s statement indicates the present regime has nothing to do with the law and order situation in the state; it is only concerned about saving its throne,” Bihar opposition leader Nand Kishore Yadav of the BJP told the media on Monday.

He said Prasad’s statements were similar to those of Bihar education minister P.K. Shahi who went on record saying it was just impossible for the state government to curb cheating in the examination without the support of the parents, guardians and the society. “The ruling party and its alliance partners are speaking the same language, and the fact of the matter is that none of them are concerned about containing cheating,” added Yadav.

The fresh development comes barely days after the Patna High Court took a suo motu cognizance of the large-scale copying in the state and directed the government to initiate strict measures to forthwith stop them. The court also issued summons to the education department to appear before it on March 27 with its reply.

Especially the Court termed as “unfortunate” the statements by the Bihar education minister P.K. Shahi who said it was just impossible by the state government to conduct fair examination given the huge number of students taking examination this time and the parents helping them use unfair means to clear their tests.

The State Human Rights Commissions too took the matter seriously and asked the state to ensure zero tolerance for copying. “It is attributed to the [education] minister that 4-5 million people are assisting 1.4 million students in copying and as such the government cannot control the menace. If the crime increases would the State say it can’t be controlled? The Commission cannot imagine that all the 1.4 million students appearing in matriculation examination are dishonest,” the commission said in its observation.

Both the Patna High Court and State Human Rights Commission stepped in shortly after the education minister Shahi declared it was nearly impossible for the state government to stop cheating without the active societal support.

“Imagine the situation. More than 1.4 million students are taking examination this time, and if you count average four-five persons helping each examinee to have access to chits, this number comes to around 6-7 millions. Given this situation, it’s beyond government’s capacity to conduct a fair examination without the support of the guardians, parents and the society,” the education minister had told the local media, reacting to reports of large-scale copying in the matriculation examination.