Educationist and activist Sonam Wangchuk’s fast against our examination system and repeated paper leaks helped ignite student protests across the country. Wangchuk had been on hunger strike from June 28 at Jantar Mantar in this scorching heat for 20 days when he was forcibly picked up from the protest site by the Delhi police and taken to Safdarjung Hospital.

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leader Abhijeet Dipke and other young supporters began an indefinite hunger strike to protest against Wangchuk’s forcible removal. There were other students like the Punjab-born PhD scholar Ameen, joint secretary of the All India Students Association university chapter, Neha, and Manish who fasted for 23 days before ending their strike earlier this week. Wangchuk ended his hunger strike on July 23 after receiving an assurance that the whole issue of paper leaks would be discussed in detail in Parliament.

Wangchuk has repeatedly used hunger strikes as a political weapon to draw attention to government failures. He has undertaken multiple fasts in Ladakh, including a 21-day fast in March 2024 to demand statehood for Ladakh and also for its inclusion under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

By undertaking these fasts he has, like Mahatma Gandhi, turned fasting into a weapon of political resistance, hoping that personal sacrifice would help build up public pressure on an indifferent and tone-deaf government. Despite going on repeated fasts in Ladakh, Wangchuk’s two key demands on statehood and inclusion in the Sixth Schedule required to safeguard Ladakh’s fast-deteriorating environment have not yet been met. In Delhi, too,........

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