{"id":129628,"date":"2026-07-18T19:10:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T14:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=129628"},"modified":"2026-07-18T19:10:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T14:10:25","slug":"indian-activist-sonam-wangchuk-forcibly-moved-to-hospital-after-20-day-hunger-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129628\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk forcibly moved to hospital after 20-day hunger strike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Web desk(National Times)- Delhi police forcibly moved activist Sonam Wangchuk to a hospital on Saturday over health concerns after 20 days of his hunger strike to protest against India\u2019s examination system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wangchuk, 59, has been&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2015956\">fasting<\/a>&nbsp;since June 28 to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged irregularities in examinations to study medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few hundred students have also joined Wangchuk around his stage at New Delhi\u2019s Jantar Mantar in recent weeks, with other protests also organised by the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) online movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs per the orders of \u2026 high court and on expert medical advice due to deteriorating health condition of Sonam Wangchuk, he has been shifted to the hospital for essential medical care,\u201d a deputy commissioner of Delhi police said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhile complying with the orders \u2026 the protestors tried to create obstruction, in which slight commotion ensued,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe request the protestors at Jantar Mantar to peacefully vacate the place at the earliest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A video from Jantar Mantar showed confusion among a few Wangchuk supporters at the site in the morning as police, carrying white sheets, hurriedly moved him from the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Police also moved some CJP supporters who were staging a sit-in at the venue, asking them to vacate the area. Visuals showed one woman protester being physically lifted by policewomen and carried away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>ANI<\/em>&nbsp;news agency, in which&nbsp;<em>Reuters<\/em>&nbsp;has a minority stake, said Wangchuk was conscious, and his vitals were stable in the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey dragged Sonam Sir away \u2026 a 60-year-old man, who had been on a hunger strike for 20 days and hadn\u2019t eaten a thing, was forcibly dragged away by the Delhi Police. We have no idea where they have taken him,\u201d CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A New Delhi court ordered government doctors on Thursday to monitor the activist\u2019s health daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \u201clife of any citizen is precious,\u201d the court said after a petition filed by activist lawyer Rakesh Kumar Saini warned that Wangchuk may not survive for long if he does not break his fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhatever medical intervention is needed to save Sonam Wangchuk\u2019s life should be done,\u201d the Delhi High Court&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/cities\/Delhi\/as-wangchuks-health-worsens-delhi-high-court-orders-regular-monitoring\/article71231021.ece\">ordered<\/a>&nbsp;on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An engineer by training, Wangchuk is best known for pioneering water conservation projects in the Himalayas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few hours before he was picked up by the police, Wangchuk said: \u201cSmaller movements have brought down many governments in India \u2026 and here it is about education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wangchuk has been at the centre of CJP\u2019s protests, lying on a mattress in the middle of a stage, as supporters and visitors to the protest site mill about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year, Modi\u2019s government accused Wangchuk of inciting people through what it said were provocative statements during violent protests in Ladakh, to which he belongs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wangchuk spent about six months in jail before being&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1982035\">released&nbsp;<\/a>in March this year. He has denied the allegations against him, and said the violent protests were a reflection of the frustration with the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the third day of his fast, Wangchuk told&nbsp;<em>Reuters<\/em>&nbsp;his fast would last six weeks unless he died first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut hopefully, we don\u2019t have to go that far,\u201d he had said. \u201cA sensitive government in a democracy listens to the pains of the people, and I hope they will take action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, some 2.2 million aspiring medical students sat for a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2008345\">re-examination<\/a>&nbsp;under tight security after the previous test was scrapped following a paper leak that triggered widespread outrage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The failure of the hugely competitive exam, along with a separate&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2004875\">marking fiasco<\/a>&nbsp;in high school tests, sparked an outcry and fuelled youth protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Several members of opposition parties have voiced their support for Wangchuk and the student activists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Web desk(National Times)- Delhi police forcibly moved activist Sonam Wangchuk to a hospital on Saturday over health concerns after 20 days of his hunger strike to protest against India\u2019s examination system. Wangchuk, 59, has been&nbsp;fasting&nbsp;since June 28 to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged irregularities in examinations to study medicine. A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk forcibly moved to hospital after 20-day hunger strike - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129628\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk forcibly moved to hospital after 20-day hunger strike - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Web desk(National Times)- Delhi police forcibly moved activist Sonam Wangchuk to a hospital on Saturday over health concerns after 20 days of his hunger strike to protest against India\u2019s examination system. Wangchuk, 59, has been&nbsp;fasting&nbsp;since June 28 to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged irregularities in examinations to study medicine. A [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129628\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-18T14:10:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-18T14:10:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-8-25.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129628\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129628\/\",\"name\":\"Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk forcibly moved to hospital after 20-day hunger strike - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129628\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129628\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-8-25.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-18T14:10:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-18T14:10:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129628\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129628\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129628\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-8-25.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-8-25.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129628\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk forcibly moved to hospital after 20-day hunger strike\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk forcibly moved to hospital after 20-day hunger strike - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129628\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk forcibly moved to hospital after 20-day hunger strike - Nation","og_description":"Web desk(National Times)- Delhi police forcibly moved activist Sonam Wangchuk to a hospital on Saturday over health concerns after 20 days of his hunger strike to protest against India\u2019s examination system. 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