The tension in Jharkhand became more acute on Friday when Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad formed a physical fight with the police in the vicinity of Chief Minister Hemant Soren's official residence when they were trying to break security barricades. The students were out in force to express their support for student protests in the capital to demand immediate and comprehensive action in the recent state recruitment examination.
By doing so, the demonstrators were going to push the police and tried to push through barricades that were also erected around Sidho Kanho Park, and were about five hundred meters from the Chief Minister's residence. The police took action to keep order and prevent any security breach or any accident. During the chaos law enforcement officers arrested between 8 and 10 prominent protesters and took them to Lalpur police station. The police arrested some ABVP office-bearers such as Pradeep Shekhawat, Pashupatinath Upmanyu and Prakash Tuti.
Ajay Aryan, Deputy Superintendent of Police for Headquarters, explained the tactical operation and said the student march had been intercepted near Sidho Kanho Park to stop a potential escalation of the situation. Meanwhile, the widespread student anger over corruption and administrative failures in recruitment exams has now entered its fifteenth day. Talks and negotiations between the government of the state and the aggrieved student group have completely collapsed without a satisfactory solution to the long-running dispute. The main points of contention are the demands for the cancellation of the fourteenth Jharkhand Public Service Commission examination and a full and unbiased probe into the recruitment process.
In sharp condemnation of the police response and the administration’s handling of the crisis, detained ABVP leaders say their struggle is not against the police but for government policies. They say the students and job aspirants are protesting continuously at Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium for over two weeks and there is a lack of response from the state government on the ground, and for a whole lot of things are going to happen there. Building on the momentum of the movement, ABVP state secretary Prakash Tuti announced that the organization will continue to support the aspirants and will mobilize even more people and plan for an even bigger demonstration. In an indication of the increasing pressure, the student outfit has officially announced that they are going to organize a major 'Vidhan Sabha march' at the Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium next day (11 August) and invite students, women and youths of the entire state of Jharkhand to come together and demand that the chief minister should be held accountable.
