Student movements have been assigned a specific geographical and ideological space in the national media and its mainstream discourse. On TV screens, movements only become “revolutions” when they take place at Jantar Mantar in Delhi or in elite campuses like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University. The flames of candles lit there illuminate national editorial pages and give TV anchors days of material to debate. But about fourteen hundred kilometres away from the capital Delhi, when thousands of young people sit on an indefinite hunger strike under the open sky of the Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, the national media cameras turn away. No national anchor’s OB van is parked there, nor do prominent intellectuals of the country reach there to deliver speeches in support of the youth. student leaders sitting on hunger strike in Ranchi have parched lips, OMR sheets lie spread on the ground, and the police force stands ready to remove the strikers. Still, why is the echo of this movement not reaching the country’s political consciousness?
The reason is brutally and nakedly strategic, The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not in power in Ranchi, the regime against which students are taking to the streets. There, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Indian National Congress are in power, led by Chief Minister Hemant Soren. When a student protest erupts in a non-BJP-ruled state, it shatters the comfortable framework of our national political discourse. This movement exposes a harsh truth that no side of Indian politics wants to acknowledge: institutional decay, bureaucratic insensitivity, and the sacrifice of youth’s aspirations are not the monopoly of any one ideology they are a deep, structural disease of the Indian system of governance. The political environment in Delhi often ignores regional conflicts. When a movement occurs in Delhi, it is immediately presented as a “civilizational struggle” or a “fight to save democracy.” But when students risk their sleepless nights and precious years of their youth at the Ranchi stadium, it is dismissed as a mere “local administrative issue.”
This division is not just a media issue, but also the political class of the country. The same opposition leaders and civil society representatives who go to the Raj Bhavan in BJP-ruled states to protest question paper leaks or exam cancellations, are reluctant to even look at Ranchi’s Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium. For them, this movement is “politically inconvenient” because it undermines their narrative that all non-BJP governments are the epitome of good governance and progress.
The German sociologist and philosopher Max Weber described two forms of politics in his famous lecture “Politics as a Vocation”: the Ethics of Ultimate Ends and the Ethics of Responsibility. In today’s India, the national response to student movements is driven neither by morality nor by accountability—it is entirely driven by the “politics of partisan opportunism.” If the protest is against your political opponent, it is a “democratic right”; if it is against your colleagues, it is “indiscipline” or an “opposition conspiracy.”
The immediate cause of this public outrage in Jharkhand is allegations of widespread irregularities, paper leaks, and rigging in the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) and Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) examinations. The allegations of OMR sheet manipulation and security breaches in the JPSC’s 14th Combined Civil Services Preliminary Examination and the JSSC-CGL examination have exhausted the patience of millions of candidates in the state.
The demands of student leaders under the banner of the ‘JPSC-JSSC Reform Forum’ are clear and straightforward: The suspicious and fraud-affected examination cycles should be cancelled immediately. The entire matter should be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or an independent committee of retired High Court judges, to prevent local administrative cover-ups. Permanently ban the tainted, blacklisted agencies that conduct exams, and make the fifth option ‘not attempted’ mandatory on OMR sheets so that later no one can fill empty bubbles. But treating this whole controversy as merely an “administrative failure” or a technical case of “paper leak” would be a grave mistake. In India’s remote regions and tribal-majority states like Jharkhand, competitive exams are not just a way to get a job. They are a Sacred Social Contract.
When the son or daughter of a farmer counts every grain of ration in a small room in Ranchi or Hazaribagh and studies day and night for four to five years, that exam does not only determine the student’s future; it carries the family’s social standing and the last hope of escaping poverty. When a paper is leaked, it’s not just the cancellation of a paper years of financial sacrifice by a family and the self-respect of future generations are auctioned off.
Political philosopher John Rawls formulated the principle of Justice as Fairness in his landmark book, A Theory of Justice. Rawls argued that the foundation of any democratic society rests on the fact that its institutions provide equal and fair opportunities for advancement to all citizens. When those at the lowest rung of society begin to believe that “access and money,” rather than merit, are the keys to success, the fundamental moral fabric of society collapses. The Ranchi student movement is a helpless cry to save that crumbling moral fabric.
Look at the Hemant Soren government’s response. The state government’s position that “paper leaks are a national problem” is as irresponsible argument. When those in power criticize the central government’s authoritarian attitude at the national level, how can they be so harsh toward students peacefully fasting in their own state to press for their demands? Does the standard of justice change depending on who is in power? On the other hand, the attitude of the main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is no less contradictory. BJP leaders are marching in support of the students in Ranchi and accusing the state government of corruption. But when the same BJP is in power in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, or Madhya Pradesh and the question of paper leak arises, the protesting students are lathi-charged by the police and the movement is labelled as “anarchy.”
Thus, young aspirants have become mere ‘political pawns’ for both sides. The ruling coalition wants the protesters to get tired and go home so that their electoral image is not blemished, and the opposition wants the fire of protest to keep burning so it can be exploited in the next election. But neither wants to build that transparent and robust recruitment system that can conduct examinations without fraud under any party’s rule.
Twentieth-century philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote in her famous essay, “Truth and Politics”: “Truth has an inevitability… But the nature of power and authority is such that they can never tolerate truth, because truth sets limits on the arbitrariness of power.”
The agitating students of Ranchi are standing before the government as that unpleasant “truth.” By their silent presence, they are refuting the Soren government’s claim that its government is “friendly to the youth and tribal people.” This is why the establishment is trying to suppress this truth or entangle it in endless cycles of negotiations.
When a student movement is cut off from the national discourse and becomes politically inconvenient, the state adopts a more lethal strategy instead of lathi charges:
(Strategy of Attrition)
Governments know that the average poor student does not have unlimited time and resources. He or she faces constant pressure from home, his or her age limit is running out and their financial resources are drying up. The state often operates in the following stages: The movement is completely ignored for the first few days so that it can calm down on its own. When the movement escalates, a CID investigation or a high-level committee is formed. Its purpose of this is not to deliver justice, but to cool the students’ immediate anger. Rounds of talks are held with different factions of student leaders to create distrust among the agitators. When the students are physically and mentally exhausted, the movement gradually disintegrates. The same scenario is being repeated in Ranchi. Student leaders are on hunger strike, their health is deteriorating, but the government is merely biding its time rather than making concrete legislative or institutional changes. This situation isn’t just about the future of a few thousand students in Jharkhand. It’s a major question mark on India’s entire democratic and social fabric.
During the Constituent Assembly debates, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar warned that:
(Constitutional Morality) is not an instinctive feeling. It has to be cultivated. In our country the development of constitutional morality is still in its early stages, and if institutions lose impartiality, democracy will remain only an external shell. When the impartiality of a State Public Service Commission (JPSC) or Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) is completely lost, it is not merely an administrative failure—it is the murder of Dr. Ambedkar’s very “constitutional morality.” When the state cannot assure its youth that their selection will be based on their merit, it forces them to rebel against the system. If democracy is limited to voting every five years, and in the intervening five years, young people have to sleep hungry on the streets for their basic rights and transparent examinations, then what use is tht democracy? The fight being waged at Ranchi’s Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium is not a fight against any party. It is a fight against the entire corrupt system that has turned the dreams of the country’s youth into a business.
This movement may not find a place in the prime-time debates of the national media. It was not possible to create it, but it is being recorded in the pages of history. This movement is a warning to all citizens who think that politics is decided only in the corridors of Delhi. The students of Ranchi are reminding us that justice has no political party. If any government—be it of the BJP, Congress, or any regional party tampers with the future of the youth, it must be questioned. Until the country’s intelligentsia and civil society remove their ideological glasses and begin speaking out in unison against all injustice, countless protests like the one in Ranchi will continue to be ignored in the corridors of power as “inconvenient.” The hunger of the youths on hunger strike in Ranchi is not just a thirst for food—it is a hunger for justice. And if a democracy cannot satisfy the hunger for justice of its youth, its foundations cannot remain secure for long.
