Ground Report: Anger, An Empty Stage And A Show Of Solidarity At Jantar Mantar After Wangchuk Was Taken Away

The stage at Jantar Mantar wore a different look this morning. For nearly three weeks, it had been Sonam Wangchuk’s spot, the place from where the climate activist-turned-education reformer sat on an indefinite hunger strike. While the spot stands empty, around it, other fasting students had taken his place, lying down, too weak to sit up, as the movement they built alongside him tried to absorb the shock of his removal.

Delhi Police took Wangchuk away from the site early this morning and shifted him to a government hospital, as his hunger strike entered its 21st day. Police say the move followed a Delhi High Court order and medical advice, citing his “deteriorating health condition.” Protesters at the site described it as a “forceful removal,” timed just two days before a planned march to Parliament and the start of the Monsoon Session on Monday.

On the stage sits Danish Ali, JNU Students’ Union joint secretary, who has herself been on hunger strike for days and was hospitalised briefly last week after her blood sugar levels dropped dangerously low. She described the moment Wangchuk was taken away as sudden and forceful, with police moving in early and lifting him off the stage as protesters tried to resist. “We are here to finish what we started. We can’t leave this protest until the education minister resigns,” she said.

Around her, on the same stretch of stage, other fasting students lay quietly, wrapped against the July heat, continuing the strike Wangchuk had begun.

A short distance away, off the podium, Abhijeet Dipke, the Cockroach Janta Party founder who had himself announced a fast, was surrounded by layers of protesters.

Speaking to Outlook India, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat called it a familiar pattern with resistance movements: powerful governments first try to ignore them, and when that fails, they turn to force. She linked the timing of the action directly to the start of the Parliament session. “The government didn’t expect the protest to last this long and since the students weren’t giving in, they took away Wangchuk,” she said.

The ground has filled up with more visible anger and louder sloganeering, tighter knots of protesters around speakers, and a noticeably larger media presence than before. Police deployment, too, was heavier than usual, with officers positioned at multiple points around the stage after the morning’s events.

Among the crowd was Fatima Khan, who had taken a morning train from Bihar to reach the protest site. Her daughter, she said, had attempted NEET three times before giving up.

“My daughter had come to believe that the exam itself could not be trusted, and that there was no point in sitting for a test that was rigged against students like her.” Fatima had travelled to Delhi, she said, simply to stand with the students still fighting that fight.

At the protest site, Yogendra Yadav condemned the action, saying it showed a government that had grown nervous. “This had not expected the protest to last this long, and now removed Wangchuk undemocratically.”

Where opposition leaders had been conspicuously absent from the site in its early days, several have arrived in recent days to register their support.

CPI(ML) Liberation MP Raja Ram Singh, who represents Karakat in Bihar, said he had come to Jantar Mantar to show solidarity with the students and with Dipke, who had led the movement. “Attempts to discredit student movements were not new. They happen wherever such movements arise around the world,” he told Outlook India. “I am here to salute the women protesters who have emerged as a voice for women across the country.”

The protest at Jantar Mantar has run since June 20, led by the CJP under Dipke, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the scrapping of the National Testing Agency over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG examination. Wangchuk joined the agitation with an indefinite hunger strike that began on June 28, drawing political support over the following weeks, from AAP and CPI(M) leaders to farmer unions and civil society figures.

Several fasting students besides Danish Ali, among them Neha, Manish, Hrishikesh, Deepak and Aameen, all associated with the All India Students’ Association, have also been on an indefinite hunger strike alongside Wangchuk, with more than one needing hospital treatment as the strike wore on.

Today’s action comes two days before the protest group’s planned “Chalo Sansad” march to Parliament, scheduled for Monday, the same day the Monsoon Session is set to begin.