New Delhi, 22 July— Even as the Cockroach Janta Party today appealed to Sonam Wangchuk to end his hunger strike, which entered its 25th day on today, a delegation of Opposition MPs is slated to meet the Ladakhi activist whose hunger strike has powered the CJP’s protest putting the Modi government in a tight corner.
While the CJP has reiterated that unless their demand of the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for the exams is met, the protest shall continue.
“CJP’s Request To Sonam Sir,” said the CJP in a post on X. “With great respect and gratitude, we request you to please end your fast. Your sacrifice has inspired thousands of students across the country. On 20th July, young people travelled from different states to stand with you and this movement. You have shown that this fight is bigger than any one person and that students deserve justice. But right now, we need you to take care of your health.
“We promise that this struggle will not end with your fast. We will continue the protests and take this fight forward until our demands for examination justice are met. We will do everything we can to keep it moving.
“We will carry this movement forward,” the CJP vowed.
A delegation of Opposition MPs will visit Wangchuk at Gurugram’s Medanta Hospital to persuade him to end his 25-day fast and assure him that issues relating to the irregularities in competitive examinations and accountability in the education sector will be raised in Parliament, political sources said.
The delegation will urge Wangchuk to end his fast after assuring him that the Opposition will take up the matter inside Parliament, the sources said.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose and CPM Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas will be among those who meet Wangchuk, according to the sources.
Earlier, Wangchuk said he would end his fast if MPs and leaders of political parties assured him that the issue of accountability in the education sector would be taken up during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
However, following the police crackdown on protestors during the Cockroach Janta Party’s “Sansad Chalo” march to Parliament, he announced that he would continue his fast until such an assurance was given.
The climate activist joined the CJP-led agitation at Jantar Mantar on June 28 and began an indefinite hunger strike in support of students demanding accountability over examination irregularities, reforms in the education system and the resignation of Pradhan.
Wangchuk, whom the Delhi Police forcibly shifted to Safdarjung Hospital on July 18, has been moved to Medanta Hospital following a Delhi High Court order.
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