An aerial view of students and job aspirants marching towards the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly to protest against the State government.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The BJP on Monday stepped up its attack on the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress government in Jharkhand even as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi condemned the police action against protesting students.
Leader of the Opposition in the Jharkhand Assembly and senior BJP leader Babulal Marandi dared the Congress leadership to withdraw support to the Hemant Soren government if it was serious about the students’ demands.
“My message to Jharkhand students is very clear. We condemn any violence against peacefully protesting students,” Mr. Gandhi said at a press conference in Delhi.
“It does not matter where it is happening; we are against it and we do not support it. There is no confusion in our minds. As long as the protests are peaceful, we are against attacking them with violence,” he added.
In a post on X, he said the use of force against students protesting in Jharkhand was wrong and that students had a right to peaceful protest.
“Only dialogue can yield solutions,” Mr. Gandhi said, urging the State government to hear the students out and resolve their issues immediately.
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BJP leaders detained
Mr. Marandi and BJP Jharkhand State president Aditya Sahu led a protest outside Mr. Soren’s residence in Ranchi in support of the students. The BJP demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations and sought Mr. Soren’s resignation. The leaders were detained by the police.
Mr. Marandi said the lathi-charge on the students would prove to be the “final nail in the coffin” for the JMM-Congress government. He alleged that the JMM-Congress government was “openly selling” Jharkhand Public Service Commission and Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission jobs.
Mr. Marandi said the students had been protesting for more than 17 days and alleged that the government had remained a “spectator” despite several protesters falling ill. “It is an injustice done to the lakhs of poor, Dalit, tribal, rural, and hardworking youth of Jharkhand who dream of securing employment after years of struggle,” he said, adding that the lathi-charge on students was an “act of cruelty and barbarism”.
Mr. Sahu termed the Jharkhand government as “oppressive and dictatorial”, saying that the manner in which BJP leaders were forcibly dragged and bundled into a bus was “not a good sign for democracy”.
He accused the government of suppressing the students’ voices through force and said the Congress and Mr. Gandhi should either pressure Mr. Soren to accept the students’ demands or withdraw support to his government.
“The police lathi-charge on unarmed students marks a dark chapter for democracy. While the Congress party staged protests outside the Prime Minister’s residence in Delhi, it remained silent regarding the oppression committed by its own government in Jharkhand,” Mr. Sahu said.
Published – August 10, 2026 08:57 pm IST
