Even his wife’s plea failed to sway activist Sonam Wangchuk, who has refused to end his indefinite hunger strike despite mounting health concerns. Visiting him at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Friday, the 20th day of his fast, Gitanjali J Angmo urged him to call off the protest, but Wangchuk remained steadfast, saying the hunger strike was “my way and my determination”.
The following day, as his indefinite hunger strike entered its 21st day on Saturday, Delhi Police shifted him to a hospital amid mounting concerns over his health after nearly three weeks of fasting and losing over 9 kg of his weight.
On Friday, while speaking to India Today’s sister website after meeting Wangchuk, Angmo said she conveyed both her own concerns and those of supporters across the country, urging him to end the hunger strike and continue the campaign through other means.
“There is a lot of pressure from people across India. They asked me to tell him to stop. I told him that many people, including me, want him to end the hunger strike and that we can fight in a different way. But he said, ‘This is my way and this is my determination’,” she said.
Angmo also expressed concern over the impact of Delhi’s weather on Wangchuk’s health, saying fasting in the capital was significantly more taxing than in Ladakh.
“They have fasted for longer periods before, but that was in Ladakh, where the weather is cooler and the humidity is low. Twenty days here are equivalent to nearly 40 days in Ladakh,” she said.
Since beginning his indefinite hunger strike on June 28, the 59-year-old activist has survived only on salt and water while demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over irregularities in the examination system and the NEET-UG paper leak.
“I have grown weak from the outside but I’m strong from within,” he told supporters gathered at Jantar Mantar on Friday, urging them to participate in a protest march planned by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).
“Together, we will march peacefully to the parliament and put forward our petitions at the altar of democracy,” the activist said. He then joked that if he died before the march, his “ghost would join the march”.
Wangchuk’s health had remained under round-the-clock medical supervision throughout the protest, with concerns over his condition intensifying in the days leading up to his hospitalisation.
Meanwhile, our reporter stayed overnight at the CJP protest site to closely observe Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike and the ongoing agitation. Read our ground report here.
The protesters have been demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, holding him morally accountable for alleged irregularities in the examination system following the NEET-UG paper leak that led to the cancellation of the medical entrance test earlier this year.
Pradhan has dismissed the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and its supporters as the “B-team of disruptive elements”, while the government has so far not initiated any dialogue with the protesters.
However, calls for the Centre to engage with the agitators have grown louder, with Opposition leaders and members of civil society urging the government to open talks.
– Ends
Published By:
Shipra Parashar
Published On:
Jul 18, 2026 07:54 IST
