Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike exposes the limits of moral protest in today’s India |
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Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike exposes the limits of moral protest in today’s India
Despite Sonam Wangchuk’s health conditions, no govt official contacted him. The silence raises a question: does moral protest still have power to compel those in authority to engage?
Twenty days. More than nine kg lost.
Lying on a thin mattress atop a makeshift stage at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, under two pedestal fans battling the 40-degree heat and humidity, activist Sonam Wangchuk greets every visitor with folded hands. Visibly frail and speaking with difficulty, he still manages a faint smile.
“I am not in good shape, but not so bad either… I am not dying,” he says.
“My body is losing muscle, but my heart is still working. Don’t ask me to break my fast. Instead, join me on the march to Parliament on July 20,” he appeals in a video message.
Even on the 21st day of his indefinite hunger strike, Wangchuk remains resolute in his demands for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak controversy and sweeping reforms to India’s examination system. He undergoes daily medical examinations and survives on a few sips of water mixed with salt.
Yet, despite his visibly deteriorating health, no representative of the government has reached out for dialogue.
That silence raises a larger question: does a moral protest still have the power to compel those in authority to engage? The answer appears to be no.
There was a time when Gandhian fasts compelled governments to negotiate because they generated overwhelming public pressure. Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement in 2011 is the most recent example. Today, however, the landscape has changed. Public attention spans are shorter, and social media buzz often fails to........