Pankaj Yadav, 28, lay on the road, 1 km away from the Jharkhand Assembly, with a swollen foot, trying to explain to those around him where the police baton had struck him. His knees and leg were hurting, he said, and there was pain near his stomach too.

Jharkhand students protest: Follow LIVE updates on August 10, 2026

Yet even as he sat amid the chaos outside the Vidhan Sabha on Monday (August 10, 2026) evening, Mr. Yadav was talking about the examinations that had brought him there.

A JPSC and JSSC aspirant, Mr. Yadav had appeared for the State-level job recruitment examinations four times. Each time, he said, the process had been marred by irregularities. On Monday (August 10, 2026), he joined thousands of other aspirants marching towards the Assembly, carrying with them a frustration that had long outgrown any single examination.

For Sonali Agrawal, a JPSC-CGL aspirant, the march was about the years students were losing while waiting for a recruitment system they could trust. “As students, we are constantly dealing with exam cancellations and paper leaks. Since the formation of Jharkhand, this has been a consistent issue for 26 years,” she said. “These exams are a lifeline for this State’s youth and this is the reason why the issue is still alive.”

The march called by the JPSC-JSSC Reform Manch and the JLKM began at the old Vidhan Sabha around 10.30 a.m. The protesters came demanding the cancellation of the JSSC-CGL examination, accountability for the alleged examination irregularities and an CBI investigation into them.

As the crowd moved closer to the Assembly, police baton-charged the protesters and used tear gas and low-pressure water cannons on them. Later in the evening, the police used heavier force and baton charge to disperse those who remained.

Around 8.30 p.m., YouTuber Parth Kumar told The Hindu that his camera had been destroyed by the police personnel near the Vidhan Sabha complex. “They forced me to delete the footage of lathi charge and then pushed me to the ground with my camera and it broke,” he said.

The police action deepened the anger among the aspirants. “They should directly hit us with a gun. The government is already sucking our youth years,” said 32-year-old Shubam Kumar, an aspirant.

‘Are we terrorists?’

For many in the crowd, the barricades themselves had become part of the message they felt the government was sending them.

Binod, a protester, pointed to the barbed wire around the barricades. “We see these barbed wires on the border with Pakistan. Does the government think that we are terrorists in our own country?” he said.

The anger intensified after the first round of lathi charge. Anand Sagar, 26, suffered an arm injury in the police action. “This dictatorial government is beating us students, but we will give an answer for this treatment through our votes,” Mr. Sagar said. “We came to wish the Chief Minister on his birthday but they beat us black and blue. I can’t even stand up.”

Jitendra, who was present during the baton charge, questioned the government’s response to the students. “This government says that students are like its family. Is this the way to treat family?” he said. “If we are protesting as per the laws, then why is the government beating us like criminals?”

For Ms. Agrawal, the march was ultimately not about a political party or a single day of confrontation. It was about whether students could believe that the years they spend preparing for government jobs would lead to a fair examination. “We demand a CBI investigation because we do not trust the State authorities,” Ms. Agrawal said. “We are not against any party, we just want reforms in the system.”

For some protesters, Monday’s march also brought back memories of earlier demonstrations. Manu, 24, from Ramgarh, had attended the CJP’s July 20 march to Parliament in Delhi, where he suffered a head injury.

“The Delhi Police was much more aggressive. Here the police have let us move forward. We couldn’t even leave the Jantar Mantar site,” he said.

Mr. Manu said he saw a difference in how the two police forces handled the protests. “The Delhi Police should learn from Jharkhand police. They are doing their duty but also supporting the aspirants. Many of them have given the exams we are now giving,” he said.

But the use of force, he added, was still difficult to justify. “Lathi charge was wrong and people got angry, but we reached the Vidhan Sabha premises, even while the police were there,” he said.

Published – August 11, 2026 03:56 am IST