NEW DELHI — Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk has ended a 26-day hunger strike over an exam paper scandal that has spiraled into a wide ranging, youth-led wave of demonstrations demanding the resignation of the education minister in Prime MInister Narendra Modi’s government.
Supporters of the youth-led movement meanwhile called a nationwide day of protest on Friday.
Wangchuk said he ended the hunger strike in Delhi in the presence of two of Modi’s top ministers after receiving assurances that his conditions would be met by the government.
In a video from his hospital bed, Wangchuk said he had been promised that the issue of accountability in the failing examination system would be discussed on the floor of the Indian parliament.
The government also assured him that families of those who killed themselves after the leaks of a crucial examination paper would be given adequate compensation and that there would be no cases registered against students and young people who took part in mass protests in Delhi on Monday.
In a post on X, Wangchuk said he did so “after a long negotiation on various conditions” and also to avert “possible violence in the country”.
Wangchuk, 59, went on strike to support the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), whose members also demand the resignation of India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The activist was forcibly removed from a protest venue in Delhi last Saturday and taken to hospital.
India’s state and health ministers had visited Wangchuk in hospital.
Reacting to Wangchuk’s decision to end his hunger strike, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke wrote in a post on X: “The Cockroach Janta Party’s peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar will continue until Dharmendra Pradhan resigns.”
Mass protests have not stopped in the Indian capital, after the brutal police crackdown on Monday’s march to parliament, which left scores of protesters and officers injured.
The CJP is now India’s most visible youth movements. It is being seen as one of the biggest public displays of dissent against the government of Prime Minister Modi, which has been in power since 2014.
It emerged in May as an online satirical movement to protest against paper leaks and other irregularities in India’s top exams and has gained a massive following on social media.
The protesters, who call themselves cockroaches, have been demonstrating for a month now, with some members also going on hunger strike.
Source: Saudi Gazette