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As night falls on day 18 of his hunger strike, the lack of any sustenance except water shows. It is 7pm and Sonam Wangchuk looks weak. A physiotherapist sits beside him on the stage massaging his arms to soothe his aching joints. Propped up against pillows and bolsters, Wangchuk whispers: “I’m sorry, but I’m unable to speak.”
The activist and engineer has lost close to 9kg from a body that was spare and lean to begin with. Doctors say it is around this stage of a hunger strike that the body enters a state of severe starvation, breaking down fat and muscle, resulting in extreme weakness, impaired brain function and electrolyte imbalance.
On Thursday, as day 19 arrived, an Indian court ordered authorities to monitor Wangchuk’s health.
He was not really meant to be here, on this improvised stage, lying under an awning in an unbearably hot and humid capital. It’s a long way from home in the icy cold Himalayan region of Ladakh where he is known for campaigning on the climate crisis. Yet, by starting the hunger strike, Wangchuk has become the beating heart of India’s latest protest movement, the Cockroach Janta party, or CJP. Its demand is the reform of a soul-destroying education system and the resignation of the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan.
Two million students were devastated when a key nationwide exam to enter medical college was cancelled in early May after a paper was leaked. A dozen students were reported to have killed themselves, unable to face sitting it a second time.
The CJP was founded on 16 May by 30-year-old Abhijeet Dipke. He was in the US looking for a job when the chief justice of India called some unemployed youths “cockroaches”. Dipke embraced the cockroach tag and urged others to do so, and the movement rapidly gained popularity as a platform for young Indians.
Since 6 June, the CJP and its followers have been camping out at Jantar Mantar, a popular protest site in Delhi. Supporters have been drawn from all over India – students, senior citizens, social media influencers, academics and parents – all furious with an education system that forces children to study 10-14 hours a day and have the rest of their lives determined by a single three-hour test.
Most of the middle-class families who turn up at Jantar Mantar are not politically active. But they have been bringing cooked food, biscuits, bananas and water to keep the protesters going in temperatures upwards of 37 degrees.
No one in the Narendra Modi government has engaged with the protesters.
“Why won’t they talk to us?” asks the CJP national spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka. “Don’t they know they are servants of this country who are meant to be accountable to the people?”
Anish Gawande, a young and upcoming opposition politician, laments the government’s refusal to listen. “Ministers are sitting 100 metres away from Jantar Mantar and ignoring these voices. In a functioning democracy, a government listens to its people and their aspirations,” he says.
Just as Modi refuses to speak to the press, Pradhan will not answer questions from the media.
Dismayed by the government’s stance, Wangchuk joined the protest on 28 June and began an indefinite hunger strike.
He is no stranger to the government. Last year, he was arrested in Ladakh on charges of inciting anti-government protests. After jailing him for 170 days, the government dropped the charges and freed him.
Inspired by his example, several other protesters at Jantar Mantar are also on hunger strike. One has been hospitalised.
Atul Yadav, 27, from Azamgarh, has refused to eat for the past three days. “How can this government ignore honest, well-meaning young boys and girls? They’ve left their homes and families to be here day in, day out. I just had to come to give moral support to them and to Sonam sir,” he says.
Concern about Wangchuk’s condition has been mounting. He is unable to walk to the bathroom about 30 metres away without being supported. He speaks little to conserve energy. A useless fan by his mattress does nothing to relieve the suffocating humidity.
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So far, he is alert (he refuses to allow any plastic bottles of water on the stage) and looks calm as the crowd chants slogans supporting him and denouncing Pradhan.
The weather is a defining feature of the protest. Sweat pours down the face of everyone in attendance. Clothes are drenched. The mood of all there – CJP organisers, the media, the crowd, the large cohort of police officers – is hot and bothered.
One by one, CJP organisers have been falling ill. “They go home for a couple of days to recover and then come back,” says Ratna Singh, who has taken time off as a lawyer to act as a CJP spokesperson.
Much of the organisers’ time is spent controlling the number of people who want to meet Wangchuk to express admiration. Though speeches by politicians and activists and impromptu performances punctuate the day, all eyes are fixed on Wangchuk’s reclining body.
Two doctors sent by the government and others who have volunteered their services check his vitals, heart and kidney and liver functions throughout the day.
One of the volunteers, Dr Nitin Dighe, says Wangchuk has refused to have more than one fan throughout his hunger strike as “everyone else is suffering from the heat, too”.
In recent days, there have been calls for Wangchuk to end his fast. The Congress party MP Shashi Tharoor posted on X that he has already done enough to “awaken the conscience of the nation”.
Meanwhile, more than 1,800 prominent personalities released a letter saying it was pointless for him to continue given that “the government does not have a heart or a conscience”, adding: “This battle is a marathon not a sprint and we need you, your strength and leadership in the days to come.”
If Wangchuk becomes critically ill, the government is likely to take him to hospital and force-feed him.
On Monday, the CJP called for a rally to march on parliament on what will be the first day of the new session.
By 9pm on Wednesday, people were still pouring through the yellow metal barricades at Jantar Mantar to see Wangchuk. After gesturing that he can’t speak much, he whispers: “Come for the rally on Monday. Come to show your support.”
English (US) ·