The meals are coming from strangers. The recipient is simply “Any student protesting in Ranchi.” Weeks after food delivery apps became an informal lifeline during the Cockroach Janta Party-led Jantar Mantar protests in New Delhi, where strangers from across the country and abroad ordered meals for protesters they had never met, the same model of support has surfaced in Ranchi.
As thousands of students continue their agitation over alleged irregularities in the JPSC and JSSC recruitment examinations, supporters from distant cities are using Swiggy and Zomato to send food to the protest site, reported The Lallantop, India Today Digital’s sister portal, which is covering the protests from Ranchi.
The JPSC recruits officers for the state’s civil services and gazetted posts, while the JSSC conducts recruitment for various Group C and other subordinate government posts across state departments.
At Ranchi’s Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium, a sea of protesting students and government exam aspirants have been holding an indefinite sit-in over alleged irregularities in recruitment exams, including the JPSC and JSSC. The protesters have the CM Hemant Soren’s JMM-led Mahagathbandhan government in their crosshairs. Slogans of “Jharkhand Sarkar Hosh Mein Aao” have been raised as they demand action over the alleged irregularities. The agitation began around July 25 at Ranchi’s Bapu Vatika, then shifted to the iconic Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium on July 29.
Amid the protests, supporters and well-wishers sitting hundreds of kilometres away, many with no connection to Jharkhand, are ordering meals on Swiggy and Zomato, and asking delivery partners to hand them to “any protesting student”.
The phenomenon is strikingly similar to what played out during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led month-long agitation at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar over the NEET-UG paper leak.
The protesters are demanding a CBI probe into recruitment examinations conducted by the JPSC and JSSC over the past seven years, reforms in the recruitment system, and stricter accountability. Devendra Mahato, leader of the Jairam ‘Tiger’ Mahato-led Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM), is participating in the agitation, saying his party is extending only “moral support” to what protesters insist remains a non-partisan movement.
But alongside slogans and speeches, delivery riders arrived with lunch boxes addressed to no one in particular.
RANCHI’S STUDENTS’ PROTEST FED FROM AFAR
The pattern came to light in a ground report by The Lallantop, which documented delivery executives arriving at Ranchi’s Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium carrying food orders without the name of any individual recipient. Instead, customers instructed them to simply hand the meals to any student participating in the protest.
A delivery executive, surprised by the request, admitted he had never encountered such an order before. “I have never before been asked to deliver a meal without knowing who it was meant for,” the delivery executive told The Lallantop.
The Lallantop journalist, Vikas Verma, spoke to some of the people placing these orders through the delivery executive’s mobile phone.
Tilak, who said he was speaking from Delhi, explained that he had “sent food after witnessing the hardships faced by students during the CJP protests”. He said he had seen protesters struggle to arrange meals and believed students could not sustain agitation without food. “If they have to survive, they need food. Otherwise, they won’t be able to continue sitting in protest,” he said, adding that he had no connection with Jharkhand and was simply supporting the students’ cause.
Another food delivery executive told The Lallantop that multiple partners like him had been arriving throughout the day with similar instructions. He added that people from different states were continuously ordering food for people at the protest site.
Another person, Ekta, a Delhi-based teacher who also described herself as a student, said she had initially placed a trial order because she was unsure whether it would reach the right place.
After the first order, she said she planned to send another and would now provide clearer delivery instructions directing riders to the student protest site near Ravindra Bhavan and Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium.
The Indian Express, in its ground report from Ranchi, painted a picture of a protest sustained by community participation.
Organiser of the protest, Vinay Kumar, told the newspaper, “We have received tremendous support from ordinary people. But basic facilities have remained a challenge. We have repeatedly sought electricity, but it has not been provided. We even brought utensils to cook for ourselves, but were told we could not prepare food here. That’s why we placed a donation box. People are keeping this movement alive by contributing whatever they can.”
WHY THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS ARE PROTESTING IN JHARKHAND
While anger over alleged recruitment exam irregularities in Jharkhand has been simmering for years, the cancellation of the 14th JPSC Combined Preliminary Examination became the immediate trigger for the current agitation. The protesters have also threatened to intensify the agitation if their demands are not addressed.
Students and job exam aspirants are demanding a CBI probe into recruitment examinations conducted by the JPSC and JSSC over the past seven years, action against those responsible for alleged irregularities, reforms in the state’s recruitment system, and the introduction of a fifth “not attempted” option in OMR sheets.
They have also sought Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s resignation on moral grounds and warned that if their demands remain unmet, they will march to the Jharkhand Assembly and intensify the agitation in the coming days.
– Ends
