Renowned education reformer and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk has ended his hunger strike to advocate for Ladakh’s statehood and the preservation of the delicate Himalayan ecology, but he stressed that this was only the end of phase one and that his fight will go on. Wangchuk had been subsisting on salt and water for the past 21 days.
The reformer, whose life served as the model for Phsukh Wangdu in the 2009 movie “3 Idiots,” had declared when he started his fast on March 6 that it would last for 21 days and may be “extendable till death.”
In a post on X, Mr Wangchuk said 7,000 people had gathered when he ended his fast. “I’ll be back… 7,000 people gathered today. It was the end of the 1st leg of my fast. By the way, 21 days was the longest fast Gandhi ji kept,” he wrote.
A video accompanied the post, in which he said in Hindi, “Today is an important day. The first phase has ended but the hunger strike has not come to a close. After me, women will begin a 10-day fast tomorrow. This will be followed by youth, Buddhist monks. Then, it could be women or I could come back. This cycle will go on. As many as 6,000 people, from all religions, joined me in a one-day fast.”
“I am hopeful that our voice will be amplified and reach the government. As many as 60,000 to 70,000 people have come here in the past few weeks and voted with their feet. I hope that our hunger strike will continue but I am more hopeful that the government will hear the voice of the people and fulfil its promises,” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Wangchuk had urged the Union government to “show character” and meet the demands of the people of Ladakh. He said that 350 others had joined him in the fast despite the temperature falling to -10 degrees Celsius in a video that was uploaded on X. He pointed to a frozen glass of water.
“We are trying to remind and awaken the consciousness of our Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and Home Minister Mr Amit Shah to safeguard the fragile ecosystem of the Himalayan mountains in Ladakh and the unique indigenous tribal cultures that thrive here,” the activist said in the video.
“We do not want to think of PM Modi and Amit Shah ji as just politicians, we would rather like to think of them as statesmen but, for that, they will have to show some character and farsightedness,” he added.
Ladakh, which consists of the Leh and Kargil districts, became a separate Union Territory after Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was abrogated on August 5, 2019.
Leaders of the Muslim-dominated Kargil and the Buddhist-dominated Leh joined forces under the banners of the Kargil Democratic Alliance and the Apex Body of Leh to demand statehood and the protection of the rights of their majority tribal population under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. This led to massive protests and hunger strikes in the UT earlier this year.
A high-level committee was established by the Centre to investigate the demands, but after multiple meetings with protestor representatives, little progress was made. UT leaders met with Home Minister Amit Shah on March 4 and informed him that the people’s demands had not been realised. Two days later, Mr. Wangchuk started his fast in Leh.
