Sitting in his family home in Bihar’s Nawada town, Abhishek Kumar has spent the last week glued to his phone. A bout of typhoid has left him barely able to walk, but he cannot look away. On his screen, the protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar unfold, stirring a powerful sense of déjà vu.He understands the protesters’ anger. In December 2024, the 28-year-old was among hundreds of aspirants who spent three months braving the biting cold, sleeping in the open at Patna’s iconic Gandhi Maidan to demand action over the alleged leak of the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) exam papers they had taken.It was just one of nearly 150 competitive examinations Kumar says he has appeared for over the past nine years.The protests amounted to nothing. As did Kumar’s attempts at securing a job, despite holding a Master’s degree in Political Science. He is shattered, he says, but not at the failure to get a job. “We protested for three months with a simple demand: a meeting with Bihar’s Chief Minister. But they did not relent,” he recalls. “It feels like there is no one to listen to us now.”That is why Kumar supports the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led protests rocking the capital. “We are broken now. We have lost all hope,” he says. “That is why this protest is needed.”