{"id":59504,"date":"2026-07-16T06:09:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T06:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=59504"},"modified":"2026-07-16T06:09:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T06:09:41","slug":"indian-activist-urged-to-end-hunger-strike-as-he-loses-9-1kg-in-19-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=59504","title":{"rendered":"Indian activist urged to end hunger strike as he loses 9.1kg in 19 days"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">BBC:   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Calls are growing for Indian educationist and activist Sonam Wangchuk to end his indefinite hunger strike after concerns over his rapidly deteriorating health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 59-year-old, who has been surviving on salt water for the past 19 days, has lost 9.1kg and aides say he&#8217;s in immense pain and unable to even stand without support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Thursday, the Delhi High Court is set to take up a petition asking it to &#8220;urgently intervene and provide medical aid to him&#8221; &#8211; otherwise &#8220;he may die in two days&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wangchuk has been protesting in support of an online satirical movement called the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) who are seeking educational reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To begin with, the protesters are demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan after a key entrance exam for aspiring doctors was&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cwy2gd508n9o\">cancelled in early May following a paper leak<\/a>. They say the minister must take moral responsibility and quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pradhan has dismissed CJP and its supporters as &#8220;the B-team of disruptive elements&#8221;. And the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not engaged with the protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Popularly known as &#8220;Sonam sir&#8221;, Wangchuk is one of Ladakh&#8217;s best-known public figures and a well-known name in India. His work has earned international recognition, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2018, often referred to as Asia&#8217;s Nobel Prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was the inspiration for Three Idiots, the 2009 superhit Bollywood film, and in 2017, he appeared as a celebrity guest on Kaun Banega Crorepati &#8211; the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, hosted by superstar Amitabh Bachchan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC: Calls are growing for Indian educationist and activist Sonam Wangchuk to end his indefinite hunger strike after concerns over his rapidly deteriorating health. The 59-year-old, who has been surviving on salt water for the past 19 days, has lost 9.1kg and aides say he&#8217;s in immense pain and unable to even stand without support. On Thursday, the Delhi High Court is set to take up a petition asking it to &#8220;urgently intervene and provide medical aid to him&#8221; &#8211; otherwise &#8220;he may die in two days&#8221;. Wangchuk has been protesting in support of an online satirical movement called the&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59507,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59504\/revisions\/59507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}