Sonam Wangchuk removed from Jantar Mantar on Day 21 of hunger strike, taken to hospital; chaos erupts | India News
NEW DELHI: Activist Sonam Wangchuk was removed from Jantar Mantar early Saturday and taken to hospital as his hunger strike against alleged irregularities in the NEET examination entered Day 21.Wangchuk was removed from the stage 48 hours before his planned march to Parliament, which is scheduled for the first day of the Monsoon Session on Monday.Simultaneously, Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke was also detained.“I have beaten and put under detention by Delhi Police,” Dipke posted on X.Delhi Police said the Ladakh activist was removed as per the orders of high court and on expert medical advise due to his deteriorating health condition.“He has been shifted to the hospital for essential medical care…We request the protestors at Jantar Mantar to peacefully vacate the place at the earliest,” DCP New Delhi posted on X.Sonam Wangchuk lost more than 9kgs since beginning his indefinite hunger strike, with doctors warning that he may soon enter a potentially “alarming” phase involving organ damage.On the Day 19 of his fast, Dr Satish Lamba, providing an update on Wangchuk’s health, said the activist remained mentally alert and medically stable, but warned that doctors were closely monitoring his condition in case it deteriorated. In a video message shared at the end of the Day 20 of his fast on Friday, Wangchuk urged people to join the CJP Parliament march on July 20 in large numbers, saying public participation was the movement’s biggest strength.“Yes, I am still alive. Twenty per cent of my body is gone. After fats, muscles are gone. After that, organs will go. Finally, the brain. The time has not come yet,” Wangchuk said.Seeking to reassure supporters about his condition, he added, “The 20th day is coming to an end. Let me prove that my mind is still fine.”Referring to questions over whether the ongoing agitation would lead to accountability or the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Wangchuk said people often underestimated the power of mass movements.“I ask you — do the people of India love their children’s lives and education more, or onions?” he said, before recalling that governments had fallen in the past over public anger triggered by soaring onion prices.“Three times governments fell in India because of a people’s movement. Once in 1980, the central government fell. In 1998, the Delhi government fell. That year, the Rajasthan government also fell. And what was the movement about? Onion prices,” he said.The CJP has been holding a protest at Jantar Mantar since June 20, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged irregularities in the NEET examination, a judicial probe into the alleged examination scams and wider reforms in the examination system.Wangchuk joined the agitation on June 28 and has remained on an indefinite hunger strike since then.
