Ranchi: “I will continue this struggle till all of our demands are met— even if this white sheet turns into a shroud,” 35-year-old Devendra Nath Mahto, on day four of his hunger strike, whispers into the mic. Mahato is one of eight protesters who have been on hunger strike in Ranchi’s Jaipal Singh Munda stadium.
Hundreds of students from across Jharkhand have been protesting at the stadium against the alleged paper leaks and irregularities in the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) and Jharkhand Staff Service Commission (JSSC) recruitment exams.
However, in contrast with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest in New Delhi, the stadium in Ranchi has two stages, two separate protests, and separate Vidhan Sabha and other marches scheduled as well.
The protest began after the 14th Jharkhand Public Service Commission Combined Civil Services Examination (JPSC CSE) held in Jharkhand in April was mired in controversy due to allegations of irregularities.
However, the protests have brought together aspirants who have appeared for multiple recruitment exams conducted by the JPSC and the JSSC over the years.
While three leaders of the regional Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha are on an indefinite hunger strike on one stage, four protesters are on a hunger strike on the other stage set up at the opposite end of the same ground.
Another protester has been on a hunger strike independent of the two larger groups, lying under a statue of Jaipal Singh Munda.
While the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad is holding independent marches and rallies, burning Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s effigy, leaders of the National Students’ Union of India and the Indian Youth Congress also turned up at the stadium on Wednesday. The All India Students’ Association has announced a march on Thursday.
And while the students assert that they want to keep their protest “apolitical”, Congress and BJP leaders, as well as members of their affiliated students’ organisations and even a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti, showed up at the protest.
Some extended their support to the students’ demands for cancellation of the 14th JPSC CSE, a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) probe and larger systemic reforms.
Others made a host of other demands, from fast-track courts to the resignation of the state education minister.
“We felt that the stage was slowly turning into the stage for a specific political party. We’ve been saying since the beginning that we don’t want to be the stage for a party; we want it for the students,” Pawan Kumar Goswami, a member of the core committee behind the students’ protest, told ThePrint.
“We’ve been telling everybody, don’t bring your party agenda to the stage. You’re not welcome here if you do that.”
From protesters in their early 20s to those in their late 30s and even early 40s, the protest speaks in multiple voices and faces, sometimes in unison, other times in conflict with each other.
The state, on its part, has launched an investigation by the Crime Investigation Department (CID), which has made 19 arrests so far. The government also extended an olive branch to the protesters on Wednesday, with Ranchi SDM Kumar Rajat and ADM Dhananjay Kumar inviting a five-member delegation for talks.
After deliberating for about two hours, the students told the authorities that any discussion should be held among students and not behind closed doors. However, a few hours later, Ravindra Paswan, a core committee member, told the media that they would convey the names of their delegation members by Thursday.
Meanwhile, a fleet of cars, security and umbrellas lined up inside the Jaipal Singh Munda stadium Wednesday evening. Amid heavy rain, an NDA (National Democratic Alliance) delegation led by Jharkhand Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi met with the protesting students and assured them of their support.
“The Assembly session begins tomorrow…We have all felt that these are not just discrepancies but the sale of jobs in Jharkhand,” Marandi told the media. “Even in the all-party meeting, I clearly said that the government should cancel the exams in the wake of these discrepancies. This entire matter should be investigated by the CBI. The Speaker has said that this will be deliberated on in a meeting and then a decision will be made.”
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Sonam 2.0?
On one stage of the stadium is student leader Devendra Nath Mahto, who has been on an indefinite hunger strike since Sunday.
Mahto is connected to the regional party, the Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JKLM), which was founded in 2024 by Jairam Kumar Mahato, also known as Tiger Jairam Mahato. Two more JKLM leaders have also joined Mahto on the hunger strike this week.
Formerly called the Jharkhandi Bhasha Khatiyan Sangharsh Samiti, the seeds for the party were laid in December 2021, when the Jharkhand government released a list of regional languages for district recruitment exams in Dhanbad and Bokaro. The list included Bhojpuri, Magahi, and Angika alongside Jharkhand’s tribal languages.
According to the party’s official website, the ‘Jharkhandi Bhasha Sangharsh Samiti’ was formed in January 2022 as a youth and student organisation to intensify the youth movement against language imposition.
Tiger Mahato’s name emerged in one such protest organised by this Samiti. After lending his support to other causes as well, Jairam decided to run for elections in 2024, months after the JKLM was recognised in the state.
Jairam emerged as a prominent OBC (Other Backward Class) face in Jharkhand after securing more than 3.47 lakh votes in the Giridih Lok Sabha constituency as an Independent, finishing in third place.
He then clinched the Dumri Assembly seat the same year with a vote margin of 10,945, defeating Bebi Devi of the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). However, he lost against Congress candidate Anup Singh by a margin of 29,375 votes in the Bermo constituency.
Now, three members of his party are on a hunger strike in Jharkhand, with Devendra Nath Mahto even being touted as ‘Sonam Wangchuk 2.0’.
Devendra, 35, is a post graduate, and has contested three elections so far, but lost all. As an Independent, he secured 1,445 votes in the Silli constituency in 2019, and 1.32 lakh votes in the Ranchi Lok Sabha constituency. He contested the 2024 Assembly elections on a JLKM ticket, securing 41,725 votes in the Silli assembly constituency.
He has at least 11 cases pending against him, involving various charges such as criminal intimidation, attempt to murder, kidnapping, rioting, wrongful restraint, being a part of an unlawful assembly, obstructing a public servant in discharge of public functions, and crimintal trespass.
However, his party colleague, Prem Naik, who is also on hunger strike, claimed that the cases relate to his student protests.
Many voices
On the other side of the stadium is another stage, with four protesters on a hunger strike.
Rupesh Kumar Pal, 30, says he has appeared for 14-15 exams since 2017. Habiba, 27, says she has appeared for around 15-20 examinations since 2017. She says she travelled to Ranchi for the protest from Bokaro.
Joining them are 28-year-old Sabita Kumari from Ranchi and 39-year-old Rahul Kranti from Lesliganj town.
All the protesters on hunger strike are surrounded by portraits of B.R. Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi and Bhagat Singh, with some of the protesters on hunger strike clutching the Constitution of India.
Near one of the statues of Jaipal Singh Munda is a solitary Brahmamnand Kumar Mahto from Ramgarh, who had a sericulture job in Nagdi. However, one of his relatives told ThePrint that while he qualified in the JSCC’s Keetpalak (silkworm rearer) recruitment examination in 2023, his appointment has been stalled.
Without a large student crowd supporting him, unlike the other two stages that have managed to build canopies on their heads, Brahmanand is often surrounded by a few solitary people clutching an umbrella or a makeshift tarpaulin over him during rains.
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Sharing stage
On Wednesday afternoon, the protest ground was buzzing with leaders of different student organisations at opposing ends of the political spectrum.
National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) national president Vinod Jakhar, Rajasthan Youth Congress president Abhimanyu Poonia met the four students on hunger strike. They were a part of the Congress delegation that met Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday evening with a memorandum on the students’ protest.
Around the same time, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had completed its “akrosh march” at the nearby Firaylal or Albert Ekka chowk, post which, its supporters burnt an effigy of the chief minister.
Prakash Tuti, state secretary of ABVP Jharkhand, along with other ABVP leaders also made their way to the stadium after the march, at the same time that the NSUI leaders as well as their Indian Youth Congress (IYC) pcounterparts were speaking to the protesters.
According to Tuti, the ABVP is demanding a CBI probe, resignation of the education minister and a fast track court for the trial of those arrested in such cases.
Swami Divyanand Maharaj, from the Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti, also showed up around the same time at the protest.
“I will also be on protest till these children are…If students are appealing to you in a peaceful manner, you should agree with them. And if you don’t, then the way Dharmendra Pradhan had to resign, you must also resign on ethical grounds. Else, you must get ready for when the citizens take you off the chair,” he told ThePrint.
While they were all near the protest stage at the same time, an announcement came from one of the organising protesters on the mic saying they don’t want politicians to use their protest for their purposes.
As all student organisation leaders exited the stadium, chants of “Rajneeti nahi chalegi, zindabad zindabad. Chhatra ekta zindabad (Politics will not work. Long live student unity),” reverberated through the protest.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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