Illustration: Sreejith R. Kumar
Right as Sonam Wangchuk entered the 21st day of his fast, authorities whisked him away, covering his path from the stage at the Jantar Mantar protest site to the waiting ambulance with a wall of white curtains. Mr. Wangchuk tried to raise his hand beyond the curtains, and it appeared for a split second before he was ushered in and sped off.
Mr. Wangchuk, 59, has emerged as an unlikely symbol of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)’s weeks-long youth-led protests across the country, now centred in the heart of the capital. The mythology surrounding Mr. Wangchuk is ever evolving: from stories of how he concealed his family pedigree — his father Sonam Wangyal, a mountaineer and former MLA — to gain admission to an engineering college as an ordinary student, to becoming the face of climate demonstrations in ecologically sensitive Ladakh in 2023, and, last year, to championing the region’s demand for greater autonomy.
On both occasions, Mr. Wangchuk undertook a lengthy fast, setting him on a path that would lead him to Delhi. In 2025, as Mr. Wangchuk participated in a walk from Leh to Delhi, authorities arrested him after violence broke out, leaving four people dead. While Mr. Wangchuk was held under the stringent National Security Act, he was released midway through his detention period, as the government sought to earn the Ladakhis’ trust. His record as an educator precedes his recent streak of resistance. His Ramon Magsaysay Award citation in 2018 recognised his “uniquely systematic, collaborative and community-driven reform of learning systems in remote northern India, thus improving the life opportunities of Ladakhi youth, and his constructive engagement of all sectors in local society to harness science and culture creatively for economic progress.”
Sonam Wangchuk hunger strike Day 21 updates
Social issues
In recent years, Mr. Wangchuk has brought national attention to the causes he championed, such as worries around Ladakh’s autonomy following the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution. In that sense, it was not far-fetched for Mr. Wangchuk to fuse the real-world impact he was recognised for with his growing social media savvy.
After the CJP’s Abhijeet Dipke landed in Delhi from the U.S. on June 7, announcing that he would protest at Jantar Mantar, Mr. Wangchuk showed up, too. On June 28, when the CJP returned there, Mr. Wangchuk started his fast, anchoring the movement — threatened with displacement by police, which was urging protesters to clear out — in place.
For the most part, Mr. Wangchuk has been most commonly associated with 3 Idiots, the 2009 Hindi film whose effortlessly smart Phunsukh Wangdu character, essayed by Aamir Khan, was widely read as a nod to him and his solar-powered SECMOL campus. Neither Aamir Khan nor Mr. Wangchuk seemed to relish the comparison. Mr. Wangchuk distanced himself from the film, while Mr. Khan denied the link when asked about it in London, and side-stepped a question on the fast.
On more than one occasion, Mr. Wangchuk has stated that this protest is not political, an assessment that flies in the face of the goal of the protest: Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation and accountability for blunders in two separate crucial examinations [NEET and CBSE]. As the face of the CJP’s protest, Mr. Wangchuk has attracted growing concern over his health and a fair amount of scepticism from would-be sympathisers, who see him as a misfit in the current movement at best, and a diversion from the issues at worst.
That has not stopped crowds from thronging at Jantar Mantar, from where Mr. Wangchuk was whisked away on Saturday (July 18, 2026) morning. As of Saturday evening, Mr. Wangchuk had refused, even out of sight from anyone but his wife, Gitanjali J. Angmo, to be hooked up to an intravenous fluid or oral medication that would compromise his fast. On Monday (July 20, 2026), Mr. Wangchuk was due to lead a march to Parliament to push the issue of Mr. Pradhan’s resignation.
Published – July 19, 2026 02:00 am IST
