At a school in Bihar in a Class VII examination question paper, a question distinguished Kashmir from India sparking a new controversy, stated a report by ANI.
The Department of Education in Bihar is conducting its mid-term examinations which commenced on October 12 and will go on til October 18, for Classes I to VIII. It came to the fore when the students of Class VII were asked in their English exam: "What are the people of the following countries called ? One is done for you," as reported on ANI.
The question with an example of China was framed, "As the people of China are called Chinese, what are the people of Nepal, England, Kashmir, and India called?"
The headteacher of the school SK Das clarified that, "We got this via Bihar Education Board. The question had to ask what are people from Kashmir called? But, it mistakenly carried as what are people of the country of Kashmir called? This was human error," stated the ANI report.
The District Education Officer Subhash Kumar Gupta refused to speak on the matter while educationists and the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have alleged that this is a conspiracy and have sought a probe by the Union Education Minister, as reported by ANI.
The state President of Bihar BJP Sanjay Jaiswal shared his opinion on social media with the image of the question paper with the caption, "...Bihar government is still silent on my concern that they feel Kashmir as not a part of India. This question itself advocates that the officials in Bihar government consider Kashmir as a different country as Nepal, England, China, and India." He wrote this in a Facebook post in Hindi.
Additionally, he alleged that the Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar was "...so restless with his desire to become the Prime Minister that they are inflicting anti-national question papers on the children of class 7," as reported by ANI.
Previously in 2017, there was a similar situation where a similar question was asked in Bihar which was pointed out by a student the report stated.
