DHAKA, Jan 04,2025(BSS) - Fact-checking watchdog Rumor Scanner in an investigation today dubbed wrong a report carried by several Kolkata media claiming that all or most of the 168 candidates excluded in the new gazette notification of the 43rd BCS are Hindus.

In a report published on its website today, the fact-checking body said the Ministry of Public Administration published a gazette on October 15, 2024, appointing 2,064 people in the 43rd BCS.

But, later, the public administration ministry canceled the notification dated October 15, 2024, and appointed 1,896 candidates to the Bangladesh Civil Service by publishing a new notification on December 30, 2024. So, 168 aspirants were dropped in the new notification compared to the old notification published on October 15.

In view of this, a claim was recently made in the Indian media that the names of 168 Hindus have been excluded from the BCS list.

In addition, news has also been published claiming that most of the excluded people are Hindus or minorities.

In fact, 209 people whose names were in the first notification have been excluded in the new notification, of which at least 120 or most of them (at least 57 percent) are Muslims, Rumor Scanner found.

At the same time, about 41 people who were excluded in the first notification have also been added to the new list, of which, about 5 are Hindus or minorities.

In this regard, it is known that on October 15 last year, the Ministry of Public Administration issued a notification for the appointment of 2064 candidates in the 43rd BCS, excluding 99 people in the first phase.

However, later the said notification was canceled and a new notification was published on December 30, 2024, in which the names of 1896 people have been included.

In this regard, it is also known from the notification of the Ministry of Public Administration published on January 2, that the Bangladesh Public Service Commission temporarily nominated 2163 candidates for appointment in various cadres through the 43rd BCS examination and sent its recommendation on January 25, 2024.

In accordance with the provisions of Rule-4 of BCS Recruitment Rules, 1981, after pre-screening of the candidates through the Special Branch of Bangladesh Police and the Deputy Commissioners of the concerned districts, 99 candidates were dropped among 2163 candidates recommended by PSC. Among the dropped out 99 candidates, 40 were excluded as they were absent in the health examination and 59 were temporarily excluded in consideration of the agency report. So, a recruitment notification was issued on October 15, 2024 in favor of the remaining 2163-99=2064 candidates.

Since the issuance of the notification, questions have been raised about the acceptability of this recruitment from various perspectives.

In view of this, in order to determine the candidates’  clean image above all criticism and to re-establish trust and confidence in the government recruitment process, a decision was taken to further pre-screen the 2163 candidates recommended by the 43rd BCS through the National Intelligence Service-NSI and DGFI. 

As per the reports, adverse comments (objection/not recommended) were received on the background of 227 candidates.

Due to adverse comments, 227 candidates were considered temporarily unsuitable for appointment and a decision was taken to conduct further scrutiny and inquiry into their cases. Forty candidates who were absent in the medical examination were considered unsuitable for appointment. In the above situation, out of the 2163 recommended candidates, 40 were absent in the medical examination and 227 were temporarily unsuitable in view of the intelligence agency report, meaning a total of (40+227) = 267 candidates were excluded and the remaining (2163-267) = 1896 candidates were validated in the recruitment notification issued on December 30, 2024. 

In the next search, the Rumor Scanner team made a list of those whose names were omitted in the notification published on December 30, 2024 despite their names were in the notification published on October 15, 2024.

The list shows that 209 people whose names were in the notification of October 15 have been omitted in the notification published on December 30.

Then, according to the full names of the 209 people who were omitted, the Rumor Scanner team found at least 120 people belonging to the Islam religion whose names weren’t in the notification published on December 30 last year even after being their names in the notification published on October 15.

So, at least 57 percent of the candidates who are dropped in the new notification are Muslims.

On the other hand, the Rumor Scanner team noticed that the names of 41 people were newly added to the notification published on December 30, who were omitted in the notification published on October 15. Among the 41 newly added people, there are about 5 Hindus or minorities by name.

So, 209 people have been excluded from the 2064 people published on October 15, 2024 and 41 new people have been added, making the number of final candidates 2064-209+41=1896 people who got a place in the notification published on December 30, 2024.

After getting a place in the October 15 notification, at least 120 of the 209 people who were excluded in the notification published on December 30 are Muslims, which is at least 57 percent or the majority of the total excluded candidates.

And about 5 of the 41 newly added people are Hindus or minorities. Despite the fact that their names were not mentioned in the notification published on October 15 last year, the reason for the new addition was stated in the notification of the Ministry of Public Administration published on January 2. It said that the pre-character verification of the 2163 candidates recommended or temporarily nominated by the 43rd BCS has been further conducted through the National Intelligence Agency-NSI and DGFI, and the recruitment notification of 1896 candidates has been published from that list.

Reconsideration application of anyone among the 227 people who were already unsuitable for temporary appointment is being accepted and the opportunity to apply for reconsideration is open to everyone, according to a notification of the Public Administration Ministry issued on Thursday.

Therefore, the claim that the 168 people excluded in the new notification published for the 43rd BCS recruitment are all Hindus or most of them are Hindus is misleading.