After 21 Days Without a Government Response, Wangchuk Forcibly Shifted to Hospital, Dipke Begins Hunger Strike

For twenty days, Sonam Wangchuk sat at Jantar Mantar surviving on water and salt, losing nearly 9.5 kg , his blood pressure and sugar levels sliding under the eyes of doctors who tracked his decline daily. In all that time, there was no meeting called, no minister who reached out, no sign that the demand at the heart of the protest, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation over alleged NEET irregularities and NTA failures, was being engaged with at all. The government's first real response came not as a conversation, but as a pre-dawn operation on the 21st day: plainclothes officers, white bedsheets, and an ambulance.

Around 7 am on Saturday, some 30 to 35 personnel from Delhi Police's Special Staff entered the barricaded protest area at a moment the site was unusually quiet, many volunteers had stepped away, and CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke , the protest's coordinator, was momentarily absent from the stage. Officers surrounded Wangchuk's bed and stretched large white sheets around it on all sides, shielding him from cameras and supporters, before lifting him and carrying him to a waiting ambulance. A ring of uniformed police, backed by CRPF and RAF personnel, held back protesters as the operation unfolded in what organisers described as a calculated, camera-averse exercise rather than a medical emergency response. Sources said the decision was firmed up at a high-level meeting after Delhi's new Police Commissioner, Anurag Kumar , took charge, raising questions about whether this was a health intervention or a policy call. Notably, Wangchuk had already refused hospitalisation once, on July 13 , despite a medical report flagging concerns even then, meaning the state had known about his condition for at least five days before finally acting, and chose to act only once, by force.

Delhi Police said the move followed "orders of the Hon'ble High Court and on expert medical advice" citing his deteriorating health, and claimed officers "exercised maximum restraint" despite some protesters attempting to obstruct them.

That account was directly contested by Wangchuk's wife, Gitanjali J Angmo , who rushed to Safdarjung Hospital . "The order never mandated hospitalisation. It simply stated that an individual's health is paramount and must be monitored at regular intervals; it did not order hospitalisation. So, this is not in accordance with the High Court order ," she said, invoking Article 32 and insisting no treatment be administered without her, her family's, or Wangchuk's own doctors' consent. She disputed a reported potassium level of 2.9, saying it stood at 4.3 on Friday, and said the family would seek independent testing. Wangchuk, she said, had refused electrolyte powder and his fast "is still continuing" , inside the hospital. She confirmed the planned July 20 march to Parliament would go ahead regardless.

The government's silence-then-crackdown pattern repeated within hours. Dipke announced his own indefinite hunger strike immediately after the raid, alleging he was beaten and detained. AISA activists Neha, Aameen and Manish , also fasting at the site, said police tried to detain them too, blocked only by a human chain of volunteers. By afternoon, a woman threw an ink-like liquid at Dipke mid-speech, briefly disrupting the gathering. Dipke's father asked in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar how the government could be "so merciless" to students who "are Indians, not Pakistanis," while his mother said authorities "should have decided about Wangchuk after July 20", after, not instead of, the movement completing a peaceful month. In Guwahati, two youths were separately detained for painting Wangchuk's portrait on a wall.

With the Parliament march two days away, Opposition leaders said the raid, arriving only after three weeks of an entirely peaceful, publicly visible fast, spoke louder than any statement the government had yet to issue.