Jharkhand Protest: Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s Cabinet has cancelled the JSSC-CGL examination and every recruitment activity linked to private agency TDPL, delivering the outcome that a youth-led agitation had demanded for over three weeks. The announcement triggered celebrations at Ranchi’s Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium, where students distributed sweets and applied gulal.
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A Gen Z-Led Stir That Refused to Back Down
The protest began on July 29 over alleged irregularities in JPSC and JSSC recruitment exams. Even after the government’s August 12 announcement cancelling the 14th JPSC exam, young aspirants held firm, warning of a siege of the CM’s residence by August 20 unless the JSSC-CGL exam was also scrapped. Three hunger strikers, including Devendra Nath Mahto, sustained a 16-day fast before ending it once the Cabinet acted.
The government’s staggered concessions, cancelling JPSC first, then holding out on JSSC-CGL until pressure peaked, suggest a largely reactive response shaped by escalating agitation rather than early course correction. Soren has ordered a probe into JPSC and JSSC exams dating back to 2014 and formed a committee under IAS officer Amitabh Kaushal to recommend reforms.
The New Flashpoint: Candidates Who Already Joined
The decision has now created a second protest. Candidates who cleared JSSC-CGL, some appointed on the strength of High Court and Supreme Court orders, and who resigned previous jobs to take up their posts, gathered at Project Bhawan demanding the cancellation be reversed. One protester said the government’s move had rendered him “unemployed” overnight, and vowed to challenge it in court again.
With the CBI probe demand still unresolved and now a fresh legal battle brewing from selected candidates, Jharkhand’s recruitment saga looks far from over even as one round of protest formally ends.
