Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk continues 26‑day fast, losing 11 kg
Image source: Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Educationist Sonam Wangchuk, known as “Sonam sir”, has been on a hunger strike for 26 days to protest alleged leaking of national exams and demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. He reports he has lost 11 kg (24 lb) yet he says he is still alive.
Earlier this week the activist was forcibly removed from a protest venue at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar and taken to a hospital where he remains under intensive care. Despite appeals from the government and several opposition leaders, Wangchuk declined to end the strike.
The fast began on 28 June, when Wangchuk began eating nothing but salt and water for 21 days in Delhi’s summer heat. The protest continued after police clashed with demonstrators on 21 July, leaving dozens injured and 70 protesters arrested.
Medanta Hospital confirmed the activist’s ICU admission and reported that “he is stable, oriented and his vital signs are within acceptable parameters.” Health Minister JP Nadda visited the patient and urged him to break the fast. The CJP, the youth‑led movement over which Wangchuk is the flagship, insists that the strike will end only if the government guarantees no force or retaliation against students.
In a three‑minute video from his hospital bed, Wangchuk emphasized that he would end the strike if he received assurances that students would not be harmed, adding that the peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar would continue until Pradhan resigns. The movement has grown from a satirical anecdote about “cockroaches” to a mass mobilisation, with Wangchuk and the CJP becoming a high‑profile challenge to the Narendra Modi government.
