Overview
- Thousands of JPSC and JSSC aspirants marched toward the Jharkhand Assembly on Monday and police used water cannons, tear gas and lathis at barricades, leaving multiple protesters injured and hunger striker Devendra Nath Mahto admitted to Sadar Hospital.
- The state has cancelled several examinations and the Enforcement Directorate registered an ECIR under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act for the 14th JPSC exam, while the CID arrested former JPSC chief L Khiangte and the government refused to hand the case to the CBI.
- Protesters, now on roughly their 18th day of agitation, insist on a CBI probe or an external judicial panel and broader structural reforms to exam conduct, and they have kept hunger strikes and sit-ins to press their demands.
- The BJP has escalated the dispute into a political campaign by calling a statewide bandh, staging sit-ins outside the chief minister’s residence and pushing the issue into Parliament, where NDA MPs staged protests that helped stall the Monsoon Session.
- The dispute matters because state recruitment exams are a major route to stable jobs in Jharkhand and protesters say paper leaks and pay-for-posts allegations have eroded trust; the next key tests are whether an investigation acceptable to students is agreed and whether talks avert further health risks and street violence.