Sonam Wangchuk | Fast and composed

Illustration by Sreejith R. Kumar

As soon as Sonam Wangchuk entered the 21st day of his fast, the authorities dragged him away and covered 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 behind the curtains and it appeared for a split second before he was ushered in and whisked away.

Mr Wangchuk, 59, has emerged as an unlikely symbol of the weekly youth-led protests across the country, now centered in the heart of the capital’s Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). The mythology surrounding Mr. Wangchuk is constantly evolving: from stories of how he hid his family’s lineage — his father Sonam Wangyal, a mountaineer and former MLA — to get accepted into an engineering school as an ordinary student, to becoming the face of climate protests in environmentally sensitive Ladakh in 2023 and last year to pushing for a larger autonomous region.

On both occasions, Mr. Wangchuk fasted for a long time, setting him on the path that took him to Delhi. In 2025, when Mr. Wangchuk took part in a walk from Leh to Delhi, the authorities arrested him after violence erupted in which four people died. While Mr. Wangchuk was held under the strict National Security Act, he was released mid-detention as the government sought to win the trust of Ladakhis. His record as an educator predates his recent streak of opposition. His 2018 Ramon Magsaysay Award recognized his “uniquely systematic, collaborative and community-led reform of education systems in remote northern India, improving the life opportunities of Ladakh’s youth, and his constructive engagement of all sectors in local society to creatively use science and culture for economic progress”.

Sonam Wangchuk Day 21 Fast Update

Social problems

In recent years, Wangchuk has drawn national attention to causes he has championed, such as concerns surrounding the autonomy of Ladakh following the abrogation of Article 370 of the constitution. In that sense, it wasn’t far-fetched for Mr. Wangchuk to combine the real-world impact he was recognized for with his growing social media savvy.

After CJP’s Abhijeet Dipke landed in Delhi from the US on June 7 and announced that he would protest at Jantar Mantar, Mr. Wangchuk also turned up. On June 28, when the CJP returned there, Mr. Wangchuk began his fast and anchored the movement — threatened with displacement by the police, who urged the protesters to vacate — in place.

Mr. Wangchuk was mostly associated with 3 Idiots, a 2009 Hindi film whose casually smart character Phunsukha Wangdu, written by Aamir Khan, was widely read as a nod to him and his SECMOL solar campus. Neither Aamir Khan nor Mr. Wangchuk seemed happy about the comparison. Mr Wangchuk distanced himself from the film, while Mr Khan denied the link when asked about it in London and quickly stepped aside.

On more than one occasion, Mr. Wangchuk has said that this protest is not political, an assessment that contradicts the purpose of the protest: the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and accountability for the mistakes in two separate crucial examinations (NEET and CBSE). As the face of the CJP protest, Mr. Wangchuk has attracted growing concerns about his health and a good deal of skepticism from potential sympathizers who see him as, at best, out of place in the current movement and, at worst, a distraction from the issues.

That did not stop crowds from gathering at Jantar Mantar, where Mr Wangchuk was taken away on Saturday (July 18, 2026) morning. As of Saturday evening, Mr. Wangchuk has refused, even out of sight of anyone but his wife, Gitanjali J. Angmo, to be connected to intravenous fluids or oral medications that would compromise his fast. On Monday (July 20, 2026), Mr Wangchuk was expected to lead a march to Parliament to press the issue of Mr Pradhan’s resignation.

Published – 19 July 2026 02:00 IST