Sonam Wangchuk’s indefinite hunger strike at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar entered its 16th day on Monday, July 13. According to a health update shared by the Cockroach Janta Party on Sunday, his blood pressure had dropped to 104/66 mm Hg and his total weight loss since the fast began had reached 7.8 kg.

Sonam Wangchuk joined the CJP protest over alleged examination irregularities and the group’s demand for Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. From the beginning, however, he also connected the fast with Ladakh’s demands for statehood, Sixth Schedule safeguards and stronger protection for its environment and culture. The protest has therefore brought two separate issues onto the same platform: accountability in India’s examination system and Ladakh’s long-pending political demands.

How the fast started

Wangchuk began his indefinite hunger strike on Sunday, June 28, 2026, backing the satirical youth outfit Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) in its campaign against Pradhan, per Outlook India. The CJP's own sit-in at Jantar Mantar had already been running since June 20, drawing hundreds of protesters, mostly students and youth, along with some farmer leaders, according to Deccan Chronicle. Before sitting down to fast, Wangchuk and CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke stopped at Rajghat to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, a symbolic nod to the form of protest he was about to undertake.
 

Dipke framed the solidarity in stark terms. "A person is risking his life here to seek justice for the students. The least we can do is to come to Jantar Mantar and stand in solidarity," he said, per Outlook India.
 

A body under strain

The physical cost showed up fast. By day three, Wangchuk had already lost around 2 kg, with medical checks showing his blood pressure and blood sugar both dipping, Outlook India reported, citing PTI. Wangchuk himself described managing the strain in real time: "I will have to increase water and salt. Because dehydration is happening in the summer, when you stop eating, the sugar level drops," he said.

By day seven, the CJP said he had lost 5 kg and warned that the central government would bear responsibility if anything happened to him, according to Deccan Herald. Seven days later, the weight loss had climbed to 7.5 kg, though CJP described his condition as having "stabilised," per The Tribune. Wangchuk used that same update to warn against any attempt to remove him from the protest site.
 

Six weeks, or death

Wangchuk has been unambiguous about how far he intends to take this. "This is the sixth time, and it will be for six weeks or death," he told The Quint, calling this his sixth hunger strike and linking it directly to both the NEET issue and the long-pending Ladakh cause.

He has also pushed back on being cast as a singular hero of the movement. "I am just an ordinary citizen," he said, rejecting comparisons to a "modern Gandhi" and urging people instead to become the heroes of their own lives rather than wait for one leader to carry the fight, per The Tribune.
 

Why Parliament matters now

Sonam Wangchuk has pointed to the Monsoon Session of Parliament as the moment lawmakers could act, both on overhauling India's exam system after the NEET-UG leak and on the Ladakh demands that predate this protest by years, The Quint reported. That framing puts a clock on the standoff: if the session passes without movement on either front, the strike either escalates further or risks being seen as a protest Delhi simply waited out.
 

For now, the reactions remain split, ranging from student solidarity marches to official silence on the core demands. What's changed over three weeks is the stakes. This is no longer just about one minister's future. It's about whether a hunger strike that has already cost a 60-something activist 7.5 kg of body weight can force answers on an exam system and a region's political status that have both waited years for one.