Gitanjali J Angmo announced she will lead the march to Parliament on Monday if her husband, activist Sonam Wangchuk, is unable to participate due to hospitalisation.
Delhi Police moved Sonam Wangchuk from Jantar Mantar to a hospital, where he continues his three-week hunger strike demanding accountability over the alleged NEET paper leak.
Angmo requested that no oral or intravenous fluids be administered to Wangchuk without the explicit consent of his family or monitoring doctors.
Who is Gitanjali Angmo, at the Forefront After Sonam Wangchuk's Hospitalisation
Gitanjali J Angmo, has now stepped forward to lead the campaign. She demands greater accountability and transparency in education while supporting her husband
Summary
Police hospitalised activist Sonam Wangchuk yesterday as officers moved him from Jantar Mantar to Safdarjung Hospital, but he continues his three-week hunger strike against Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over an alleged NEET paper leak. According to the hospital, he is currently rejecting all liquids except salt and water.
His wife, Gitanjali J Angmo, has now stepped forward to lead the campaign. She demands greater accountability and transparency in education while supporting her husband.
If Wangchuk cannot join the march, Angmo plans to lead Monday's march to Parliament as the Monsoon Session resumes.
"If Sonam Wangchuk can't join the march, I will represent him and lead that march," Angmo said. She stressed that no oral or intravenous fluids should be administered to him without the consent of her, his family or the doctors monitoring him.
From Corporate to HIAL
Angmo is an educationist. She established multiple commercial and social enterprises before co-founding the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL) with Wangchuk. She now manages the mountain-development body as its founding CEO and dean.
The institute tackles local mountain challenges designing sustainable systems, including eco-friendly campuses and passive solar-heated structures, to help communities adapt to their harsh environment. In 2021, the center even created solar-heated tents for the Army.
She was born in Balasore, in Odisha. Her Punjabi family raised her in the state, where she completed a physics degree at Fakir Mohan University. She later earned an MBA from the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar. Angmo worked in Denmark's corporate sector for 15 years before returning to India to start her own businesses.
Her business interests span several sectors. She established the publishing house Helios Books, Shanghai Power Projects Ltd and Pushan before shifting her focus to spiritual and cultural pursuits. The Chevening fellow, who received the government's Women Transforming India national award, teaches Vedanta and the Gita while practicing karate, Odissi and Russian ballet.
Angmo is Wangchuk's second wife. The couple met at an education conference, she told Brut last year, describing him as a "kindred soul". She wanted to "live for a cause larger than herself", Angmo said. Wangchuk was previously married to an American, Rebecca Norman.
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Stepping Into the Spotlight
Angmo typically keeps a low profile. Yet she fiercely defended her husband when authorities invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against him last year. That September arrest followed four deaths during Ladakh protests demanding statehood and inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.
She petitioned the Supreme Court to contest the arrest and wrote to the President of India requesting help. Authorities released Wangchuk after almost 170 days in custody.
"My ordeal of making two trips every week for just a 60-minute meeting over the past five months has finally ended," Angmo wrote in an emotional post.
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