Police used water cannons, lobbed tear gas shells, and lathi-charged job aspirants as they breached barricades multiple times on 10 August and attempted to reach the Jharkhand State Assembly, protesting recruitment exam irregularities. The agitation took this turn even after the government had cancelled on 9 August the 14th Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) preliminary examination and the JPSC backlog examinations held in 2023 and 2025 following six hours of discussions with protesting student groups. This is because the government has not yet conceded the demand for handing over to the CBI the probe into the alleged irregularities in the JSSC-CGL examination.
On the surface, the government’s handling of the protests by students and youths against a corrupt examination system and lack of accountability follows the pattern of severe repression recently witnessed in Jantar Mantar, Delhi. But there was a marked difference since the police in Jharkhand did not unleash the brutality similar to their counterparts in Delhi. They showed restraint and top police officers claimed they had clear instructions not to use any force or attack the protesters. The police called its action a reaction to attempts to break the final cordon and enter the Assembly. Police claimed the agitators’ right to protest peacefully and democratically was safeguarded. But, since the crowd was huge and unruly, they had to disperse the protesters using water cannons, lathis and tear gas shells and “not using pellet guns” or ruthlessly wielding lathis with nails inserted in them as had been observed in Delhi, said one state minister.
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At a time when the country has become sick and tired of futile Opposition protests in Parliament on issues concerning the people and the government refusing to listen, actions of the youth and students seem to usher in refreshing changes. They are redefining protests against government injustice done to them, rising above party politics. Weeks after thousands of young Indians poured onto the streets of Delhi in a major protest spearheaded by the social media-based Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), another group of young job seekers have been pouring into a stadium in Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi since 25 July, demanding an overhaul of the state’s examination system. The most interesting part of the movement in the non-BJP- ruled state is that Union Minister of State for Defence, Sanjay Seth, said on 9 August that Chief Minister Hemant Soren should have met the students on the very first day of the protest. He did not even stop at that and asserted there is no need for dialogue anymore. The CM must concede the students’ “simple” demands of cancelling the examination and probing the irregularities by the CBI.
Top state BJP leaders also visited the agitating students at the stadium on the same day. Contrast this with the stony silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah when youths and students supporting the CJP and environmental activist Sonam Wanghchuk had been on hunger strike for weeks at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. The police and other security personnel unleashed a brutal attack on the protesters, and the Home Minister, once considered the muscle of the Modi government, has been avoiding Parliament since then as he is being held responsible for orders given to the police to resort to unprovoked violence against students.
For the first time in India, the ruling establishments are in a real tight situation as their opponents are not from any opposing political parties but the country’s students and youths whose main concern is their future based on safe and secure livelihood. The current unrests seen in different parts of the country are not political movement that can be easily countered by aged, well-recognised, fatigued conventional politicians’ wily wisdom. It is easy for political players to outwit their opponents from usual mainstream political parties since their track records too in serving the people have been abysmal. But the awakened youth cannot be browbeaten through political spin since they are not only distancing themselves from political discourses, but not even allowing political parties to infiltrate their ranks and dilute their cause. A great example of this was the pro-students’ protest support mounted by Rahul Gandhi and his Congress on 21 July 2026 near the rear entrance to the Prime Minister’s residence. Pro-government media instantly played this event up in the hope that it would bring the narrative back onto a conventional and manageable political track. The country understood that this was a well-orchestrated game which was supported by the party in government also. That technique failed, and the students’ movement at Jantar Mantar could not be waylaid. This is a good sign.
The students have, till now, avoided the pitfall of taking the law in their hands, thereby not allowing the usual elements to go after them and divert the main issues of corruption, lack of accountability and playing with the lives and future of the nation’s youths and students. India’s youth have realised the strength of Gandhi’s peaceful, non-violent protest. That is making all the conventional politicians jittery. Just because of this, we see how old people like Mohan Bhagwat and Rahul Gandhi are lining up to interact with young Indians, as these prominent politicians understand that this set of voters is equally distributed throughout the country in every single constituency but can never metamorphose into any tangible ‘vote bank’. Since they look at every citizen as a walking, talking vote, they are out of depth with this uncomfortable situation created by the youth. Without a vote bank, the politics of these old fogies will wilt and die soon.
