New crisis or tactical move?: Behind Soren govt's axing of recruitment exams

Drastic measures, grave repercussions

In a drastic move, on Wednesday (August 19), the Soren government notified the scrapping of 22 recruitment examinations conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) and the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) since 2018 (See Table 1). In effect, candidates who had cleared these exams and were either recruited to various posts or were awaiting recruitment have now been rendered unemployed.

Additionally, 17 recruitment examinations conducted between 2010 and 2022 (See Table 2) will be probed for malpractice by the Jharkhand CID. The CID is also investigating alleged irregularities in the earlier-mentioned 22 JPSC and JSSC exams conducted through the outsourced testing agency, TSR Data Processing Pvt Ltd (TDPL).

Also read: Jharkhand JSSC-CGL cancellation puts 2,000 jobs, govt functioning in limbo

The bulk of those who cleared these exams are currently employed in their respective categories. Since the government has only directed the CID to probe possible malpractice in the conduct of these exams and not cancelled the results, those recruited through these exams now have a Damocles’ sword hanging over their neck. If the CID finds instances of malpractice, these recruits, some already past a decade in service, may find themselves without a job upon the completion of the inquiry.

Appointments in limbo

The CID will also examine the “credentials” of testing agencies other than TDPL, which conducted six different recruitment exams (See Table 3) on behalf of JPSC and JSSC between 2024 and 2025.

The process of recruitment under these six exams has been put in abeyance until further orders, thereby placing successful candidates awaiting appointment letters in a state of limbo.

In all, a total of 44 recruitment exams conducted between 2010 and 2026 are now under scrutiny.

Furthermore, Soren’s cabinet will urge the Jharkhand High Court to set up fast-track courts for deciding cases of alleged irregularities in various JPSC/JSSC exams. The government will also constitute an internal vigilance department within the JPSC and JSSC, while a committee headed by senior IAS officer Amitabh Kaushal has been given two months to recommend exam reforms.

Soren only deferred stir from intensifying

The government’s notification came after the chief minister received some political reprieve with Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) leader Devendra Nath Mahato, mascot of the protests staged under the banner of the JPSC-JSSC Reforms Manch, ending his 16-day-long hunger strike following the Soren cabinet’s August 18 decision cancelling the 2023 JSSC-Combined Graduate Level exam result.

Having brought Soren to heel, the JPSC-JSSC Reforms Manch finally ended their siege of Ranchi’s Jaipal Singh Munda stadium on Wednesday (August 19), with Mahato’s Abhaar Yatra dubbing the government’s decision a “big victory” for Jharkhand’s government job aspirants.

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

Yet, what should have ideally allowed Soren comfort now increasingly looks like the beginning of another headache. While Mahato’s comrades called off their stir, student leader Ravindra Paswan, who was part of the Reforms Manch team negotiating with the government, has threatened that the protestors will “return with a fiercer agitation” if Soren doesn’t fulfil all his promises within two months. As such, Soren may not have ended the stir but merely deferred its intensification.

CM solves one problem, invites another

Worse, while Soren’s desperate measure to wriggle out of the Mahato-led campaign comes with no guarantee of preventing the agitation’s resurgence two months on, the chief minister has laid grounds for a fresh protest by en masse cancellation of various exams.

Hundreds of youth who had passed the now scrapped exams and had either received or were awaiting government employment have already taken to the streets of Ranchi in protest.

Also read: Jharkhand protests: Symptom of deep rot in Public Service Commissions

Sources in the Jharkhand government told The Federal that while 1975 candidates who passed the JSSC-CGL 2023 exam now find themselves “suddenly unemployed within a year of joining service”, the administration was “in the process of identifying how many more current employees stand to lose their jobs” after Wednesday’s decision.

“The number could run into several thousand because we are not only talking about 22 recruitment exams since 2024 that have been completely scrapped but also 22 other exams which the chief minister has now either referred for a CID investigation or decided to put on hold,” a senior bureaucrat told The Federal.

Radical step may land CM in court

Sources said the abruptness of Soren’s order had thrown administration into complete disarray. “Those left without a job include professors, non-teaching university and school staff, medical staff, section officers in various departments, public prosecutors and even civil judges... the most let down are the 1975 JSSC-CGL qualifiers because their recruitment was challenged in the Jharkhand High Court and the court had just last December upheld their employment,” said another state government employee.

The JSSC-CGL job holders who have now lost their employment have threatened to move court against Soren’s “arbitrary” decision, claiming that the chief minister had “sacrificed” their careers to save his chair.

Soren’s radical step has left many within his own party nervous about the poor optics and the likely political backlash that the government could face, even though they insist that the chief minister was “cornered” into taking an “extreme step”.

Also read: FIR against 600 protesters as Jharkhand recruitment exam agitation enters 20th day

“What choice did he have? The JPSC-JSSC Reforms Manch took a very unreasonable stance during negotiations even though right from the first day of the protest, Soren had been sensitive to their demands. He set up a ministerial panel, directed the CID to take all necessary steps for a swift probe, the JPSC chief (L Khiangte) was arrested within a week of the protests, other commission members resigned... yet, leaders of the protest kept insisting that unless all their demands were met, they will not end the protest,” one of the four members of the special ministerial panel formed by Soren to negotiate with the protestors told The Federal.

Govt was cornered: Jharkhand minister

The minister said the government was also left henpecked by political circumstances. When the protests in Ranchi began, the INDIA Bloc was leading a united onslaught against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for inaction on the exam paper leak and the brutal police action against student protestors in Delhi on July 20. As the Ranchi protest intensified, the BJP used it to question the INDIA Bloc and Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

“When Rahul condemned the Jharkhand government for police action against protestors in Ranchi, the protestors got emboldened and started pressuring the Congress, which in turn, began building pressure on Soren... after Rahul’s letter urging Soren to personally meet with protestors was released to the media, there was no other option left but to meet all demands and we had to do it quickly because we were also concerned about Devendra Mahato’s health as he had been on hunger strike for over two weeks,” the minister added.

Or was it a political gamble?

There are, of course, those in the JMM-Congress coalition who believe Soren’s decision may yet be a political gamble, albeit a risky one, that could eventually pay off.

“Allowing Mahato’s protest to continue carried a far greater political risk than accepting the demands the Reforms Manch put forward. Yes, the cancellation of so many exams will trigger anger among those who had secured jobs but that number will be only a fraction of those who failed to pass the exams or saw the exam system as corrupt. Besides, the government has already made it clear that it will take a sympathetic view of those who have been put out of job because of exam cancellation and if these people approach the courts and get relief, we will reinstate them quickly,” said a senior JMM leader.

Also read: By staging Jharkhand counter-protests, is BJP underestimating scale of student anger?

Sources in the government told The Federal that some JMM leaders are already “encouraging those who have lost their jobs to approach the high court for relief” and assuring them that Soren’s law officers “will not resist any relief that the court may deem fit to order in these cases”.

Sly calculation behind probe order

Soren’s decision to direct a CID probe into recruitment exams conducted between 2010 and 2019, even though the protestors’ demands were regarding more recent JSSC and JPSC exams, isn’t without political calculations of its own.

Of the 44 exams impacted by Soren’s decision, 15 were conducted between 2010 and 2019 – a period that saw both JMM and the BJP ruling Jharkhand for different spells of time. In fact, Soren’s first term as chief minister fell within this period.

At face value, Soren can claim his decision to cast the net wide for an extensive review of recruitment exams is rooted in a fair and bipartisan approach. On closer scrutiny, of these 15 exams now under the radar, only one – the 2013 Combined Civil Services Exam – was actually conducted under Soren’s first chief ministerial tenure.

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The remaining 14 were from the time when the state had BJP chief ministers, be it Arjun Munda between September 2010 and January 2013 or Raghubar Das between December 2014 and December 2019. This vast investigative net, the JMM hopes, will force the BJP to exercise caution in launching a fresh attack at the state government on the recruitments issue, especially now that Mahato and his comrades are no longer insisting on a CBI probe, which means the investigation remains firmly under the Soren government’s CID.

For Soren, the political crisis may not have ended entirely, but he has, at least, succeeded in changing its terms while allowing himself some political breathing space to chart his next steps. Whether he eventually neutralises the challenge or succumbs to it is now to be seen.