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.”

Well Done Jharkhand 👍 India is listening .🙏No foreign Funding, No Azadi Slogan, No Insult to Hindus or the Nation, Just Students Demanding Fair and Transparent JPSC & JSSC CGL Exams. 👌👍 pic.twitter.com/SGKYii4xAg— Prince Mishra 🚩🚩 (@PrinceM40609955) August 9, 2026

Well Done Jharkhand 👍 India is listening .🙏No foreign Funding, No Azadi Slogan, No Insult to Hindus or the Nation, Just Students Demanding Fair and Transparent JPSC & JSSC CGL Exams. 👌👍 pic.twitter.com/SGKYii4xAg

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 AI-enhanced (as suggested 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........

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