‘Genuine’ vs ‘political’: The social media campaign pitting Ranchi protests against CJP

As Jharkhand’s student protest against alleged irregularities in the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) and Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) builds momentum in Ranchi, sections on social media have tried to cast it as the ‘genuine’ counterpart to the Cockroach Janta Party-led protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar, the one ‘without foreign funding’ and ‘led by students’. Even when protesters on the ground, and the evidence itself, tell a different story of shared solidarity and mutual inspiration, not rivalry. 

Using specific keywords, Newslaundry conducted searches across Facebook and X to track online discussions around the two protests. 

This analysis identified recurring narratives praising the Jharkhand protest while contrasting it with CJP's month-long protest against the NEET-UG exam paper leak in Delhi that ended with Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation on July 25. The CJP protest faced allegations of foreign funding, political backing, ‘Azadi’ slogans and violence.

Same accounts, different angle

At least two posts followed identical templates and were traced back to accounts that had separately criticised CJP. 

One Facebook post read: “Student power is a wave of the people – no hooliganism, no shouting, no inflammatory statements, no stone-throwing, no anti-national talk. No abuse. Just students peacefully protesting for their rights, focused on student interests.” The post went on to allege that Jharkhand Police had “brutally lathi-charged” students and questioned why political leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal, had remained silent.

The post was shared at least 20 times on Facebook between August 10 and 12. Different users shared the same template, accompanied by visuals of students marching through Ranchi.

The post never names CJP, but its checklist – peaceful, student-led, free of ‘anti-national’ slogans – reads as direct rebuttal to it. 

Newslaundry then tracked some of the accounts that had shared the post to examine whether they had also participated in online discussions around the CJP protest. The same Facebook users were found to have posted content criticising or questioning the legitimacy of the CJP protest in Delhi.

Some users warned Jharkhand students against being “dissuaded” by CJP leaders or AISA (All India Students’ Association) activists, alleging that their involvement would serve political interests. Others criticised women who had participated in the Jantar Mantar protest. Several posts described the CJP protest as part of an “old ecosystem” comprising Left leaders, opposition politicians and political commentators.

Past statements by CJP spokesperson Saurav Das, including his 2020 criticism of the Citizenship Amendment Act, were circulated by users questioning his political “allegiance”.

These posts do not always explicitly compare the two protests, but the contrast is consistently hinted at: Jharkhand as ‘genuine’ and student-led, CJP as political, disruptive and foreign-funded. 

‘No foreign funding’, ‘no Azadi slogans’

Another recurring narrative centred on the phrases “no foreign funding” and “no Azadi slogans” while discussing the Jharkhand protest on social media. Newslaundry tracked at least 20 posts between August 3 and 10 that followed similar language and used recurring phrases.

Most of these posts followed a similar template: “Well done Jharkhand. The whole of India is watching and listening to you. No foreign funding, no political slogans, no insult to Bharat, Hindus or Hindu Gods, no hatred or unparliamentary language used against the PM.”

Additionally, a post shared by Facebook page Bharat Defence Hindi on August 4 showed an image of students holding up a tent in the rain with the text: “No Foreign Funding, No Azadi Slogans, No Disrespect to Hindus, Not Even a Proper Tent. We stand with students of Jharkhand.” The post, which gathered 5,800 likes and was shared 671 times, used an image that was later found to be AI-generated (as detected by AI-detection tool Hive Moderation). 

The posts did not directly mention CJP. However, the phrases they used, particularly “foreign funding” and “Azadi slogans”, also featured in the online discourse around the CJP-led protest in Delhi. The vocabulary overlaps with the one used to attack CJP.  

While the allegation about foreign funding has circulated in mainstream television coverage and across social media, there was no publicly available government order, investigation report or other official finding establishing that CJP received foreign funding at the time of writing this report. On July 24, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, when asked about the matter, said: “I do not have any information on this matter to share with you at this time.”

Several posts praising the Jharkhand protesters pointed to the absence of “Azadi” slogans as evidence that their protest was different from CJP. However, the CJP leadership had distanced the protest from such slogans and urged protesters to avoid them. The leadership had approved four slogans for the protest: “Inquilab Zindabad”, “Jai Bheem”, “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and “Dharmendra Pradhan Istifa Do”. Addressing protesters on July 22, CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said that negative slogans should be avoided because “they are looking for a chance to make a narrative”.

The online distinction between the two protests becomes more complicated when compared with accounts from the protest site.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke condemned the police action against Jharkhand students, calling for an impartial inquiry and accountability. Dipke also reiterated that he was not physically present in Jharkhand and said he did not want to “hijack” the protest. He acknowledged that CJP volunteers were present in Ranchi and had joined the protest. Contrary to some claims circulating online, CJP leadership did publicly condemn the crackdown by the Jharkhand Police.

Protesters on the ground also acknowledged CJP’s involvement, but did not necessarily see it as an attempt to take over the protest. 

Vimal Kumar, a Ranchi University student who is part of the JPSC-JSSC Abhyarthi Nyay Manch, told Newslaundry that CJP volunteers supported the protesters, participated in a press conference with them and joined the protest at Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium.

“CJP volunteers showed support and did a press conference with us. I also joined and sat with them,” he said. He added that anyone who wanted to support the students was welcome at the protest site.

“All student demands and protests should be heard and not pitted against each other,” he said. “We are not a political party. The main aim is to bring significant change in the state and not be wary of such small things.”

Binay Kumar, who is associated with the JPSC-JSSC Reforms Manch, spoke to Newslaundry and said, “Our goal is simple. We want reforms. Anyone is welcome to support our movement and nobody is being asked to leave. However, we will not allow any political or casteist statements to be made from our stage. Our student movement should not be deviated because of outside forces. CJP volunteers have visited the protest site.” 

More significantly, Vimal said that the protest in Delhi inspired them. “We had been angry for a long time because of these problems with the JPSC. The Delhi protest was able to take the resignation of a Union minister. Its peak gave us some positive energy and we kept at it,” he said, adding that the protesters would continue until their demands were fulfilled.

Binay echoed this, pointing to CJP’s success in forcing Pradhan’s resignation as a source of continued motivation. 

Chandan Rajak, another protester associated with the JPSC-JSSC Abhyarthi Nyay Manch, said, “The way people turned up at Jantar Mantar was a calling for us. I have been a part of many protests in the past but the way the crowd has turned up in Ranchi to support our cause is historic. We were able to take inspiration from CJP’s protest in Delhi in the way to organise protest, mobilise the crowd and put our demands forward.” 

Vimal also rejected the idea that the peaceful nature of the Jharkhand protest should be used to distinguish it from the Delhi protest. 

“Everyone is peaceful in Jharkhand and that’s our aim. Our protest is on the principles of Mahatma Gandhi,” he said. Referring to the police action during the CJP protest, he added that even if a small number of people became violent amid a large turnout, the police response was disproportionate. “Police action is wrong everywhere,” he said.

Vimal alleged that Jharkhand students also faced a police crackdown at night and that electricity was cut during the protest. “Authorities need to listen to the movement,” he said. The comparison between the two protests, he added, was “given in the wrong context”. 

Rajak added that there was no need to compare two student protests. He said, “This is a way to deviate from the real issue which is that demands are met.”

These accounts suggest CJP’s protest influenced some Jharkhand protesters – but influence isn’t control. The two movements had distinct grievances and leadership, while CJP volunteers offered support that protesters said they welcomed. 

The blame game

Police action against protesters has become another point of comparison between the CJP-led protest in Delhi and the ongoing student protest in Jharkhand. Both protests encountered police action, and in both cases, protesters and their supporters accused the police of excessive force, while authorities cited violence or attempts to breach barricades as justification for their actions.

During the July 20 “Chalo Sansad” march organised by the CJP, police used tear gas and lathis as protesters attempted to move towards Parliament. According to several media reports, around 100 protesters and 120 security personnel were injured; an RTI response from two Delhi hospitals also alleged pellet-gun use by the Rapid Action Force, injuring about 10 protesters. 

Several opposition leaders, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, also condemned the police action. Delhi Police, meanwhile, maintained that smaller groups of protesters became violent and attempted to march towards Parliament, prompting the use of force.

A similar debate emerged after police action against Jharkhand students on August 10. Police used lathis, tear gas and water cannons as protesters marched towards the state assembly. Several protesters were injured, according to a report in The Hindu, with one protester telling ANI that at least 100 young people were lathi-charged. 

On social media, users described the protesters as peaceful students and questioned why they had been subjected to police violence. Some also questioned the silence of the CJP and parties such as the Congress – which shares power with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in the state – and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the crackdown in Ranchi.

But the comparison became more complicated as competing claims about violence during the Jharkhand protest emerged online.

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi took to X on August 10 and wrote: “The use of force against students protesting in Jharkhand is wrong. Students have a right to peaceful protest, and only dialogue can yield solutions. The Jharkhand government must continue to hear these students out and resolve their issues immediately.”

Some social media users, meanwhile, claimed that people affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had “hijacked” the protest and indulged in violence. To illustrate this, a video of a clash showing two men atop a bus throwing something in the air with BJP flags being hoisted in Ranchi was presented as footage from August 10. 

Newslaundry found that the video was from an unrelated Vidhan Sabha march. We traced the same footage to the news agency IANS, which published it on July 23.

According to IANS, Congress workers had protested outside the BJP office in Ranchi over the NEET paper leak and demanded the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan. The demonstration escalated into a clash between Congress and BJP supporters, during which eggs and tomatoes were thrown and police resorted to lathi-charge. In other words, the footage did not show BJP-affiliated individuals hijacking the protest.  

Other reports from the day also described pushing and shoving between workers of the two parties, followed by a clash involving eggs, stones and sticks. The incident took place amid a wider political confrontation in Ranchi. A day earlier, BJP workers had surrounded the Jharkhand Pradesh Congress office over allegations concerning serious irregularities in the JPSC and Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSCC). Congress subsequently announced a protest outside the BJP office, leading to the July 23 confrontation.

However, this does not mean that there was no violence during the August 10 student protest. Witness accounts and the Ranchi police’s version indicate that some stone-pelting did take place. Ranchi SP Paras Rana told Newslaundry that protesters pelted stones and slippers at security personnel, causing minor injuries to some officers. He said two police personnel suffered head injuries requiring five to eight stitches, while several others sustained minor injuries. Rana also alleged that some protesters concealed stones inside journalists’ microphone covers and threw them towards the police.

The recycled footage

Another strand of the online narrative sought to portray the Jharkhand students as being denied access to opposition leaders. Several posts claimed that students from Jharkhand had reached Rahul Gandhi’s residence in Delhi to meet him, only to be removed by police. One post said: “Today, when students from Jharkhand came to meet Rahul Gandhi at his residence, the police were called.” 

An X page called Ocean Jain with 261,000 followers, which is often found sharing pro-Modi government content, posted this clip on August 7. 

Newslaundry traced the footage to two unrelated incidents outside Gandhi’s residence. The first was an August 7 ETV Bharat report on sadhus protesting against an earlier demonstration in Parliament where opposition leaders were accused of misusing religious symbols. The second was a separate protest by women over allegations that money had been taken in exchange for Congress election tickets. Both groups were detained by Delhi Police, and neither involved students from Jharkhand. But the footage was later recirculated online as evidence that Jharkhand students had been turned away from meeting Gandhi.   

Ultimately, the binary being drawn on social media collapses under closer scrutiny. The foreign funding allegation has no official finding behind it. CJP’s own leadership discouraged the “Azadi” slogans. And the visual “evidence” of BJP hijacking or police blocking opposition leaders turned out to be unrelated and outdated footage. On the ground, protesters in Ranchi described the two protests not as rivals but as one drawing energy from the other.