Indian student leader ends hunger strike after 16 days

What the report says

An activist and student leader in India’s eastern Jharkhand state, Devendra Nath Mahto, has ended a 16-day hunger strike after the state government agreed to cancel a contested recruitment exam. BBC World News reported that Mahto was admitted to hospital in Ranchi last week after his health worsened, and he stopped fasting there in the presence of state ministers.

The protest is part of a wider student and job-seeker आंदोलन that began on 25 July over alleged irregularities in government recruitment tests and calls for exam reforms. In Jharkhand, anger grew after preliminary civil service results and suspicions that answer sheets circulating online did not match expected outcomes. The dispute has also been linked to broader scrutiny of recruitment systems in India, where government jobs are highly competitive and exam controversies have repeatedly sparked protests.

According to the BBC, Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s government has now agreed to cancel the JSSC-CGL examination and to scrap all exams conducted by a private agency, while also ordering an investigation into recruitment exams held since 2014. The state’s Criminal Investigation Department is already examining alleged malpractice, and several people have been arrested, including the head of the Jharkhand Public Service Commission.

Protesters welcomed the latest announcement but said demonstrations would continue until the Central Bureau of Investigation is brought in. The dispute matters because it has raised wider questions about transparency in public hiring and placed pressure on the state government, while opposition parties have used the issue to attack the administration.