Bihar protests: Is Gardanibagh becoming the next Jantar Mantar?

What started as a local protest by government job and teaching aspirants in Patna’s Gardanibagh has escalated into a full-blown standoff over exam irregularities and official inaction. Entering its seventh day on Sunday (August 23), the movement is drawing inspiration from recent student protests in New Delhi and Jharkhand, signalling it could soon mirror a large-scale agitational hotspot like Jantar Mantar.

Turnout at the Chhatra Nyay Satyagraha has grown significantly over the last two days as students from across Bihar join the agitation, with numbers expected to shoot up further.

"What started with teaching aspirants has become a unified platform for everyone seeking government jobs to voice their grievances," said Deepak Pandey, a protester at the site. Fellow demonstrator Sarika Kumari added, "We are prepared for a long battle for our future. We demand fair recruitment and will not back down this time."

Governor’s assurance

A delegation led by Dileep Kumar met Governor Syed Ata Hasnain on Saturday (August 22) to seek his intervention. The Governor assured the delegation that he would raise their concerns with senior government officials. However, the protesters want the government to issue a formal written announcement on its official website, arguing that a verbal assurance is not enough.

Also read: Jharkhand students suspend 26-day stir, give govt 2-month ultimatum to resolve issues

Dileep, himself a graduate who prepared for the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) examinations, has become a familiar face among teacher job aspirants. Frustrated by repeated paper leaks, he has been actively involved in protests against irregularities in several government recruitment examinations over the past decade.

Wider student movement

The aspirants began their agitation as a peaceful sit-in over competitive examination irregularities and other recruitment-related concerns. They have now warned that they could launch a hunger strike if the state government fails to address their demands. Their resolve has been strengthened by recent student-led movements in Delhi and Ranchi, where protesters used non-violent agitation to press for action on their demands.

TRE 4 notification comes, but agitation continues

Protesting students staging “satyagraha', under the banner of ‘Bihar Student Union’ (BSU), a non-political body, appear adamant not to end their ongoing agitation, although Bihar government has issued the notification of the Teacher Recruitment Examination (TRE) 4, within four hours after students began the protest on last week.

It was one of the main demands of the protesting students, who warned they would gherao the official residence of Bihar Education Minister Mithilesh Tiwari if the TRE 4 notification or schedule was not issued within 24 hours.

Notably, the TRE 4 notification had been pending for nearly two years, with an estimated 1.5 million teacher aspirants repeatedly demanding its release. The government issued the notification within hours of the Gardanibagh protest beginning, prompting protesters to allege that the administration acted only after sensing the possibility of a larger agitation. “Our wait for TRE 4 is over now, and we hope the government ensures that the recruitment is conducted properly, like TRE 2 and TRE 3,” said protester Shahbaz Ansari.

Beyond TRE 4 demand

Despite the notification, the students made it clear to the government to fulfill all their demands, including a single-tier examination in TRE 4, notification for examinations for all pending and backlog recruitment vacancies, transparency in Bihar Staff Selection Commission recruitments and impartial probe into all examination paper leaks in recent years and action against exam mafias.

Also read: Jharkhand recruitment row: Job aspirants take out Tiranga Yatra in Ranchi

“Initially, student protests began demanding the government to issue a notification of TRE 4. But soon it has widened the scope of demands and taken the shape of likely a larger protest to address several other demands of most of the government job seekers – from teachers, police constables, sub-inspectors, librarians to BPSC and BSSC,” said DM Diwakar, a political analyst, based in Patna.

Dilip said that their goal was not merely issuing of notification of TRE 4, which is conducted by the BPSC, in which 32,000 school teachers are to be recruited, the government should implement the norm of ‘one candidate, one post’ and end negative marking as well for TRE 4. “Our key demands are notification for other pending vacancies, transparency in recruitment process and implementation of domicile policy in Bihar like other states to benefit native,” he added.

Parallel protest

Barely a few metres away from the ongoing protest at Gardanibagh, a group of dozens of PhD scholars and guest teachers from colleges and universities have also been staging a protest under a waterproof tent for over two weeks. One protester, Kumud Patel, has been on an indefinite hunger strike for the past 17 days. “We will not return empty-handed and will not end the protest until the government fulfils our demands,” said Kundan Singh, a protest leader.

Also read: Jharkhand bandh: BJP shuts state over police action on job aspirants

The protesters are demanding the implementation of UGC Regulation 2018 for the recruitment of assistant professors.

Tejashwi leads protests

The protest has already received support from Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav, CPI national secretary Girish Sharma and CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, who visited the protest site and met the demonstrators. The All India Students' Association (AISA), which led last month’s Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protest at Jantar Mantar, is also active.

RJD leader Tejashwi took to the streets on August 19 (Wednesday) during the party’s Lok Bhawan March to protest against the alleged use of AK-47 fire during a student protest in Siwan in July and rampant joblessness. It was the RJD’s first Lok Bhawan march in 11 years and Tejashwi’s first street protest in five years, highlighting the political importance the party is attaching to students and their demands.

During the march, Tejashwi, along with several party leaders and workers, was detained by police and later released.

Several RJD workers were seen carrying wooden AK-47 replicas, while others displayed toy guns resembling AK-47s to protest the alleged firing by police during the student agitation in Siwan. Posters in Hindi and English carried messages such as, “Stop firing on unarmed students with AK-47” and “We are not terrorists or dreaded criminals, stop use of AK-47 against students.”

RJD's Gen Z-style outreach

In a major shift aimed at sending a strong political message to young voters and students in Gen Z style, the RJD replaced its traditional green flags with the national tricolour during the march. “We displayed national flags in place of party flags to discourage police from resorting to lathi-charge against those carrying national flags. But the police used water cannons and blocked the main road with bamboo barricades for the first time to stop us,” RJD spokesperson Ejaz Ahmad said.

The Bihar government initially denied that an AK-47 had been used against protesting students. However, after evidence emerged, the government acknowledged the incident. The Bihar Police later told the Supreme Court in an affidavit that a constable fired four rounds from his AK-47 into the air after being trapped in a crowd of protesters in Siwan on July 25.

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The police, however, maintained that the injuries sustained by protesters were neither caused by the AK-47 fire nor were the injured persons located at the spot where the constable fired the weapon. The claim has drawn scrutiny as it differs from widely reported accounts of the incident.