NEW DELHI: Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke has said the youth-led movement will now call for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation after police forcibly moved activist Sonam Wangchuk to hospital following a 20-day hunger strike over India’s examination crisis.
Wangchuk, 59, had been fasting at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi since June 28 in solidarity with students demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over paper leaks and irregularities in national examinations.
Delhi police said Wangchuk was shifted to hospital on expert medical advice and in line with Delhi High Court orders after concerns grew over his deteriorating health.
“As per the orders of the high court and on expert medical advice due to deteriorating health condition of Sonam Wangchuk, he has been shifted to the hospital for essential medical care,” a senior Delhi police official said.
Police said some protesters tried to obstruct the action, causing a brief commotion, and asked demonstrators at Jantar Mantar to vacate the site peacefully.
Videos from the protest site showed confusion among Wangchuk’s supporters as police moved him from the stage. Visuals also showed some Cockroach Janta Party supporters being removed from the sit-in area.
Dipke criticised the police action, saying Wangchuk had been dragged away despite his weakened condition. He said the movement would intensify its demands and would now call for Modi’s resignation.
The CJP founder also announced an indefinite hunger strike, saying the protest would continue until accountability was fixed over the examination scandals that have angered millions of students.
Four others were also reported to be continuing their hunger strike as the protest entered a new phase.
The Cockroach Janta Party began as a satirical online movement but has rapidly grown into a youth-led political protest against exam paper leaks, graduate unemployment and what its supporters describe as a lack of government accountability.
The movement gained momentum after controversy over medical entrance examinations, including the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test. Millions of students were affected after reports of paper leaks forced a re-examination under tight security.
Wangchuk, an engineer and education reformer best known for water conservation projects in the Himalayas, had become the most prominent face of the protest.
Before being moved to hospital, he said smaller movements had brought down many governments in India, adding that “here it is about education.”
Opposition leaders and student groups have voiced support for Wangchuk and the protesters, saying the government must answer for repeated failures in the examination system.
The protest has now moved beyond a demand for the education minister’s resignation and is turning into a wider challenge to the Modi government.
For many young protesters, Wangchuk’s hospitalisation and Dipke’s new call mark a turning point in a movement that began online but has now firmly entered India’s political streets.
