The hunger-striking engineer demanding education reforms in India
Sonam Wangchuk is a well-known Indian activist and educator who is in the headlines after going on hunger strike in support of youth-led protesters demanding
Sonam Wangchuk is a well-known Indian activist and educator who is in the headlines after going on hunger strike in support of youth-led protesters demanding reforms to the education system. At the protest site in the capital Delhi, he began fasting on 28 June and has consumed nothing but salt and water since then, losing more than 9kg. Amid concern over his rapidly deteriorating health, tensions escalated when police forcibly admitted him to hospital on 18 July. Wangchuk is protesting in support of an online satirical movement called the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) – so named after India's most senior judge used the term to describe unemployed young people.
The CJP is seeking educational reforms after a series of controversies, including recent exam paper leaks. The movement is being seen as one of the biggest public displays of dissent against the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's which has been in power since 2014. Popularly known as "Sonam sir", Wangchuk is one of best-known public figures in the disputed Indian-administered territory of Ladakh and a well-known name in India. His work has earned international recognition, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2018, often referred to as Asia's Nobel Prize.
He was the inspiration for Three Idiots, the 2009 superhit Bollywood film, and in 2017, he appeared as a celebrity guest on Kaun Banega Crorepati - the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, hosted by superstar Amitabh Bachchan. The activist's worsening health has caused alarm among his supporters. As his condition has deteriorated in the past few days, opposition leaders, activists, Bollywood
actors and musicians have called on Wangchuk to end his fast. But he has said he will do so only if the government takes accountability "for the recent failures in the education system"; or if he and the CJP leadership reached parliament and MPs assured them they would take up the issue; or if lawmakers visited him in hospital and assured him this would happen.
The BriefWire