Eighteen days in, and the Jharkhand recruitment exam protest is still going, with Tuesday bringing a BJP-called statewide bandh and an ABVP march on the State Assembly.
The bandh runs from 8 a.m. to midnight the BJP’s response to Monday’s police action against protesters trying to reach the Vidhan Sabha.
Students and job aspirants have been protesting since July 25. What they want is straightforward on paper: more transparency in how exams are run, reforms at the JPSC and JSSC, several exams cancelled, and an outside probe CBI, or a panel of retired High Court judges from beyond the state.
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Six protesters are on an indefinite hunger strike; two are already in hospital.
Sunday’s sixth round of talks collapsed, with both sides accusing each other of not taking it seriously. The government’s line was that it’s unfortunate students haven’t stood down, given officials say they’ve met “98% of their demands.” The protesters aren’t buying that number, or the framing behind it.
ABVP heads to the Assembly
The ABVP, sharply critical of Monday’s police response, is running its own Vidhan Sabha March today — old Assembly building to the new one.
Monday was the flashpoint. Police used water cannons and lathi charges to keep protesters from reaching the Assembly, and the ED opened a money laundering probe into the alleged irregularities on the same day. Protesters say people on their side were hurt; Ranchi police put the number of injured officers at 14.
Water cannons near Jagannathpur Temple, tear gas as the crowd pushed forward a fairly standard escalation pattern, though no less serious for that.
The Jharkhand CID also arrested former JPSC chairperson L. Khiangte over the alleged irregularities. That’s arrest number 20 in this case, a senior CID official said.
Soren, again, asks for dialogue
Chief Minister Hemant Soren who turned 51 the day before, on Monday repeated his call for students to work things out through “dialogue and trust,” while accusing the BJP of exploiting the protests politically.
The BJP had already gheraoed his residence before Monday’s march even started. Tuesday’s bandh is being pitched as pushback against the “use of force” on students.
Rahul Gandhi weighed in too, saying peaceful protests shouldn’t be met with violence. The BJP pounced almost immediately — Gandhi’s own Congress is part of the ruling JMM coalition in the state, so criticizing the police response reads, to them, as criticizing your own government. Union Minister J.P. Nadda put it more bluntly, asking whether Gandhi could even hear the protesting students given where his party sits.
One exam scrapped, one still stuck in court
The state has agreed to cancel the 14th JPSC exam along with the 2023 and 2025 backlog exams. Higher and Technical Education Minister Sudivya Kumar said the government volunteered for the ED probe itself once financial irregularities surfaced.
The JSSC-CGL exam is stuck, though Kumar says the state can’t touch it because a court is already monitoring it directly.
There’s also a proposal on the table: a retired High Court judge to oversee the CID investigation. Protesters rejected that too. Kumar said reforms to JPSC and JSSC procedures are being worked out, with input from IIT-ISM Dhanbad, IIM-Ranchi, and XLRI Jamshedpur.