Every few months, another crowd of young people gathers outside a government office, carrying the same objects. Admit cards folded into plastic sleeves. Photocopies of certificates. Handwritten placards. The slogans shift with the state and the examination. The faces keep growing older. The files keep growing thicker.
Ranchi supplies the latest instalment, and the specifics are worth setting down before drawing any larger lesson. On 25 July 2026, students began gathering to protest alleged irregularities in the 14th Jharkhand Public Service Commission's (JPSC) preliminary examination, held on 19 April, after its results in early July set off accusations of leaks and manipulation.
By 29 July, groups had converged at Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium for what organisers called a Constitution March, and on 2 August student leader Devendra Nath Mahto began an indefinite hunger strike, demanding a CBI and Enforcement Directorate probe into both the JPSC prelims and the separate Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) recruitment.
Their core demand is blunt: scrap the 14th JPSC prelims outright and hand the inquiry to central agencies, since a state police probe into an exam conducted under the same state government strikes many aspirants as no inquiry at all.