Activist Sonam Wangchuk has maintained an indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in Delhi since June 28. The action forms part of a demonstration by the Cockroach Janta Party seeking the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan regarding the NEET paper leak. Wangchuk appears to follow the path set by his father, Sonam Wangyal.
Wangyal conducted a 16-day fast in 1982 and a five-day fast in 1984. Both aimed to secure Scheduled Tribe status for Ladakh residents. His 1984 strike concluded after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi traveled to Leh to meet him. She convinced him to stop and offered a soft drink while indicating support for the request. Gandhi was assassinated later that year.
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi later granted ST status to several Ladakh communities in 1989. In his memoir Political Evolution in Post-Independence Ladakh, Wangyal described the long-standing need for tribal recognition. He noted that northeastern and Himalayan regions had received it while Ladakh had not.
Wangyal recounted launching a joint campaign with Muslim and Buddhist communities in 1982. He fasted for 16 days in January and again for five days in 1984. Gandhi visited Leh, assured him of the status, and asked him to end the strike after offering a drink. She later announced the government’s intent in Delhi, though implementation occurred only in 1989.
Wangyal came from a modest Ladakh family. In 1947 he volunteered to help repel a Pakistani invasion. Advised to seek resources in Delhi, he walked to the capital over 45 days. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru granted him a scholarship. Wangyal studied in Srinagar, later assisted a monastery head, and campaigned against corruption. He faced repeated arrests and served as a local leader for the National Conference and then Congress. He was elected to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council in 1957 and to the assembly in 1967, later becoming a state minister.
