Indian police hospitalize activist Sonam Wangchuk during education protest

Indian police moved Sonam Wangchuk to Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi after his fast at Jantar Mantar deepened into a medical emergency. The Ladakh-based engineer and education reformer had been on a hunger strike for about 20 days, surviving on salt water in the capital’s heat as pressure mounted over education reform and alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG 2026 medical entrance examination.

The transfer pushed a local protest into a national test of how far authorities will go when dissent becomes politically disruptive. Wangchuk’s supporters framed the fast as a moral warning about education policy and public accountability, while police said they were acting on court orders and medical advice when they removed him from the protest site.

The Delhi High Court had already told authorities to intervene if his condition worsened and later ordered daily medical monitoring and necessary treatment, saying that “every life is precious.” That judicial intervention gave the protest a new legal dimension, with health officials and police now central actors in a movement that had begun as a demand for reform and had become, by the time of the hospital transfer, a question of state responsibility.

The protest also drew in students and allied groups. Supporters linked to the Cockroach Janta Party, also referred to in some coverage as Cockroach Janata Party or CJP, gathered at Jantar Mantar, where AISA and JNU students formed human chains to protect fellow hunger strikers. Police said there was a “slight commotion” as demonstrators tried to stop officers from taking Wangchuk away.

Some protesters also demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, underscoring how the campaign had moved beyond one man’s fast and into a broader challenge to the government’s handling of exam integrity. Allegations of paper leaks have long stoked anger among students in India, where competition for medical seats is fierce and any perception of unfairness can quickly spread beyond one campus or one region.

Wangchuk’s public profile gave the protest added force. He is widely described as an engineer, education reformer and climate activist from Ladakh, and he founded SECMOL School in 1998 to rebuild students’ confidence and life skills. That background helped turn his hunger strike into a wider story about access, trust and the vulnerability of student aspirations in a system many young Indians already see as uneven.