Has Sonam Wangchuk just given the govt a NEET and clean lifeline?
If there is a centre holding the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest together, it is Sonam Wangchuk. The activist from Ladakh has gone without food
If there is a centre holding the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest together, it is Sonam Wangchuk. The activist from Ladakh has gone without food for weeks to nourish the movement. If there is one reason the Centre needs to be worried, it is Wangchuk who's on an indefinite hunger strike. Get him to break the fast, and you have a faster resolution. Read Full Story And on Wednesday (July 22), Wangchuk seems to have offered the government precisely that — an exit. The three conditions to end his hunger strike tone down the main demand that sparked the entire showdown and intensified the protest. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan must resign. That was the key demand with which the CJP protest began at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar on June 6 over the NEET-UG question paper leak issue. There was little traction and sparse attendance except on weekends. Then on June 28, Wangchuk began his indefinite hunger strike with one word on his lips — resignation. India Today Digital has documented how people were drawn to the protest site at Jantar Mantar not for CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, but for a fasting Wangchuk. As days progressed, concerns over his health grew. So did the interest in the protest and the footfall. When asked how Pradhan's resignation would help fix India's education and examination system, a visibly weak Wangchuk argued that it would symbolise that the government was fixing accountability.
That would be the beginning of the reforms process, he argued. That beginning seems to have been forsaken now. However, something significant took place between July 18, when Wangchuk was forcibly removed from the protest site by the government, and July 22, when he issued the terms of ending his fast. On July 20, thousands of people, heeding Wangchuk's and the CJP's call, tried to march to Parliament. As the protesters clashed with police and RAF personnel, allegations of excessive use of force emerged. Scores of students and over 100 policemen were left injured. Cases were registered against dozens of youths and several of them were detained. On Wednesday (July 22), on the 25th day of his indefinite hunger strike, Wangchuk mentioned three conditions, including that the government pursue no legal case against the protesting youths, to end his fast. The Pradhan-must-resign demand was toned down. Behind Wangchuk's change of heart were two Union ministers — JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh — and their 10-minute meeting with him at Medanta hospital in Gurgaon on Tuesday night, and his desire to live. "Thank you for visiting me at the hospital last night and for your earnest appeal that I end my fast," said Wangchuk in a statement issued on Wednesday. He mentioned that the ministers had "assured him that the government would positively consider" — "adequate compensation" for the families of students who died by suicide following the NEET-UG examination paper leak and "a meaningful discussion in Parliament to ensure accountability, including consideration of the resignation of the Hon'ble Education Minister".
The BriefWire