Sonam Wangchuk Explains Why He finished His 26-Day Fast Without Dharmendra Pradhan’s Resignation
Climate activist and educationist Sonam Wangchuk has finally broken his 26-day hunger strike. He did it late on Thursday night, July 23, 2026, while lying in a hospital bed at Medanta in Gurugram. Union Ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh were contemporary, along with leaders from the Leh Apex Body. For weeks the country had watched him grow weaker. Doctors had warned about his kidneys. Supporters kept saying his life mattered more than any single demand. Yet the one thing many people kept asking about never came through—the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Wangchuk did not hide that fact. In a video he released the next day, he spoke plainly. He said the leaders “were unable to give me any assurance as to when this would happen.” He looked tired, his voice soft, but the reasoning was clear and calm. “My mind works differently,” he told viewers. “If he doesn’t resign, it won’t harm the children or us; it will harm the government itself. He should have resigned. Resignation would have stopped all this damage long ago. This wasn’t the most important thing for me; it would be resolved on its own.”
What mattered more to him, he explained, was protecting the students who had been protesting. He had watched young people in Ladakh spend years tangled in FIRs that destroyed their futures. He did not want the same thing to happen to the boys and girls sitting at Jantar Mantar or those who had joined the Sansad Chalo march on July 20. The government gave him written assurances on three points. First, no legal action or FIRs against students and youth who protested peacefully at Jantar Mantar or took part in the July 20 march. Second, appropriate compensation for the families of the more than twenty students who died by suicide linked to the paper-leak crisis. Third, a thorough discussion and debate in Parliament on accountability in the examination system so that such failures do not keep repeating.
Wangchuk said these three assurances were enough for him to end the fast. He had joined the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest at Jantar Mantar on June 28 and begun the indefinite hunger strike in support of the students’ demands for reforms, accountability over repeated competitive-exam leaks, and Pradhan’s resignation. By the time police shifted him to hospital around July 18, his body was already failing. Still he continued. Around 65 Members of Parliament from different parties had either visited him or written letters urging him to stop. Thousands of ordinary people kept messaging the same thing: stay alive, the struggle needs you living.
He also mentioned the risk of violence. In his first statement after breaking the fast he wrote that the decision came “after long negotiations on various conditions and in view of possible violence in the country.” He asked everyone to remain vigilant and peaceful. “Peace and only peace is my way,” he had posted earlier. Even while the protest at Jantar Mantar stayed disciplined, he was worried about reports of anti-social elements trying to stir trouble elsewhere.
The CJP’s original list of demands had been longer. It included Pradhan’s resignation, one-crore compensation for each suicide victim’s family, withdrawal of all unnecessary FIRs, and prosecution of police officers accused of excesses. Wangchuk made it clear that the resignation demand had not been dropped by the movement; he simply decided it was no longer the hill he needed to die on. “I also don’t believe that we haven’t achieved this,” he said. In his view the political cost of not resigning would fall on the government itself.
The protest at Jantar Mantar did not end with his fast. Students and CJP volunteers continued the sit-in, still calling for deeper reforms and accountability. Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali Angmo, had spoken earlier about the quiet discipline of the young people—sharing food, cleaning the site, looking after strangers, singing the national anthem under pressure. She called them role models. Wangchuk’s own message after ending the fast stayed consistent with that spirit: keep the movement peaceful, keep the focus on the students, and do not let anyone’s future be ruined by cases filed in anger.
For many who followed the story, the determination felt both practical and principled. A man who had already lost more than ten kilograms, whose kidneys were under strain, chose to live so he could keep brawling. He accepted three tangible written promises and left the resignation question open, trusting that public pressure and parliamentary debate would keep working on it. Whether that trust proves right will be tested in the weeks and months ahead, when Parliament actually debates the failures in the examination system and when the promised compensation and withdrawal of cases are delivered.
Wangchuk’s words remain the clearest guide to why the fast ended the way it did. He put the safety of the students and the continuation of a peaceful struggle above the single dramatic demand that had drawn the most headlines. In his own phrasing, his mind simply works differently. The government may still face the political cost of not acting on the resignation. The students, at least for now, have written protection and a place on the floor of Parliament. That, he decided, was enough to pick up a glass of juice after twenty-six days and keep going.
Sources:
LiveMint, “Sonam Wangchuk on govt’s three assurances…” (July 24, 2026)
The Hindu, “Sonam Wangchuk has broken his fast…” (July 24, 2026)
Al Jazeera / Daily Sun reports on the end of the hunger strike (July 24, 2026)
Wangchuk’s own video statement and X posts (July 23–24, 2026)
NDTV and other contemporary coverage of the Medanta hospital breaking of the fast
Sonam Wangchuk Explains Why He finished His 26-Day Fast Without Dharmendra Pradhan’s Resignation
Climate activist and educationist Sonam Wangchuk has finally broken his 26-day hunger strike. He did it late on Thursday night, July 23, 2026, while lying in a hospital bed at Medanta in Gurugram. Union Ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh were contemporary, along with leaders from the Leh Apex Body. For weeks the country had watched him grow weaker. Doctors had warned about his kidneys. Supporters kept saying his life mattered more than any single demand. Yet the one thing many people kept asking about never came through—the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Wangchuk did not hide that fact. In a video he released the next day, he spoke plainly. He said the leaders “were unable to give me any assurance as to when this would happen.” He looked tired, his voice soft, but the reasoning was clear and calm. “My mind works differently,” he told viewers. “If he doesn’t resign, it won’t harm the children or us; it will harm the government itself. He should have resigned. Resignation would have stopped all this damage long ago. This wasn’t the most important thing for me; it would be resolved on its own.”
What mattered more to him, he explained, was protecting the students who had been protesting. He had watched young people in Ladakh spend years tangled in FIRs that destroyed their futures. He did not want the same thing to happen to the boys and girls sitting at Jantar Mantar or those who had joined the Sansad Chalo march on July 20. The government gave him written assurances on three points. First, no legal action or FIRs against students and youth who protested peacefully at Jantar Mantar or took part in the July 20 march. Second, appropriate compensation for the families of the more than twenty students who died by suicide linked to the paper-leak crisis. Third, a thorough discussion and debate in Parliament on accountability in the examination system so that such failures do not keep repeating.
Wangchuk said these three assurances were enough for him to end the fast. He had joined the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest at Jantar Mantar on June 28 and begun the indefinite hunger strike in support of the students’ demands for reforms, accountability over repeated competitive-exam leaks, and Pradhan’s resignation. By the time police shifted him to hospital around July 18, his body was already failing. Still he continued. Around 65 Members of Parliament from different parties had either visited him or written letters urging him to stop. Thousands of ordinary people kept messaging the same thing: stay alive, the struggle needs you living.
He also mentioned the risk of violence. In his first statement after breaking the fast he wrote that the decision came “after long negotiations on various conditions and in view of possible violence in the country.” He asked everyone to remain vigilant and peaceful. “Peace and only peace is my way,” he had posted earlier. Even while the protest at Jantar Mantar stayed disciplined, he was worried about reports of anti-social elements trying to stir trouble elsewhere.
The CJP’s original list of demands had been longer. It included Pradhan’s resignation, one-crore compensation for each suicide victim’s family, withdrawal of all unnecessary FIRs, and prosecution of police officers accused of excesses. Wangchuk made it clear that the resignation demand had not been dropped by the movement; he simply decided it was no longer the hill he needed to die on. “I also don’t believe that we haven’t achieved this,” he said. In his view the political cost of not resigning would fall on the government itself.
The protest at Jantar Mantar did not end with his fast. Students and CJP volunteers continued the sit-in, still calling for deeper reforms and accountability. Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali Angmo, had spoken earlier about the quiet discipline of the young people—sharing food, cleaning the site, looking after strangers, singing the national anthem under pressure. She called them role models. Wangchuk’s own message after ending the fast stayed consistent with that spirit: keep the movement peaceful, keep the focus on the students, and do not let anyone’s future be ruined by cases filed in anger.
For many who followed the story, the determination felt both practical and principled. A man who had already lost more than ten kilograms, whose kidneys were under strain, chose to live so he could keep brawling. He accepted three tangible written promises and left the resignation question open, trusting that public pressure and parliamentary debate would keep working on it. Whether that trust proves right will be tested in the weeks and months ahead, when Parliament actually debates the failures in the examination system and when the promised compensation and withdrawal of cases are delivered.
Wangchuk’s words remain the clearest guide to why the fast ended the way it did. He put the safety of the students and the continuation of a peaceful struggle above the single dramatic demand that had drawn the most headlines. In his own phrasing, his mind simply works differently. The government may still face the political cost of not acting on the resignation. The students, at least for now, have written protection and a place on the floor of Parliament. That, he decided, was enough to pick up a glass of juice after twenty-six days and keep going.
Sources:
LiveMint, “Sonam Wangchuk on govt’s three assurances…” (July 24, 2026)
The Hindu, “Sonam Wangchuk has broken his fast…” (July 24, 2026)
Al Jazeera / Daily Sun reports on the end of the hunger strike (July 24, 2026)
Wangchuk’s own video statement and X posts (July 23–24, 2026)
NDTV and other contemporary coverage of the Medanta hospital breaking of the fast
@Rohit Manral
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