In Jharkhand, despite several rounds of talks and Assembly gherao, no breakthrough has been reached between the government and the protesting students. The students are demanding cancellation of the 2024 JSSC-CGL examination, through which more than two thousand candidates have already been appointed in various government departments.
The state government maintains that the examination cannot be cancelled at this stage, citing judicial scrutiny by the Jharkhand High Court and the Supreme Court and the ongoing CID investigation. The protesters, however, have questioned the credibility of the CID probe and have cited the arrest of Abhay Tiwari, linked to the examination outsourcing agency TDAPL, as one of the grounds for their allegations.
The second major demand of the students is a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in all disputed JPSC and JSSC examinations. The government has proposed a high-level committee headed by a retired judge, but student representatives have rejected the proposal, saying they have lost faith in state-level investigations.
Meanwhile, in Ranchi, four Congress ministers jointly addressed a press conference and accused the BJP of politicising the students’ agitation. Finance Minister Radhakrishna Kishore said the BJP was avoiding discussion on students’ issues, while Rural Development Minister Deepika Pandey Singh accused the party of attempting to give a political direction to the investigation.
At the JPSC-JSSC aspirants’ protest in Ranchi, former Chief Minister Raghubar Das condemned the alleged pressure tactics against protesting students and warned officials against interfering in the agitation. He demanded compensation of one crore rupees each for the families of the 19 affected students and said he would begin a hunger strike if a CBI inquiry into the matter is not ordered within a week. With both sides maintaining their positions, the agitation continues, while the focus remains on further dialogue and the government’s response to the students’ two principal demands.
