- 2 days ago
Education reformer and activist Sonam Wangchuk spoke about his health and recovery after ending his hunger strike, as well as the nationwide protests over examination irregularities.
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00:04good to have you on the show and good to see you looking well it's what 12 days since you
00:11broke your fast first question before i come to the politics and all else how is your health
00:18thank you rajdeep and hello everyone yes i'm getting better it's five days since i got to
00:26my village and i'm re-feeding very well i've gained some six kilos of the 11 that i lost and
00:34feeling energetic once again you know uh this morning we got news that you had connected with
00:41the students who are protesting in jarkhand again protesting against exam irregularities there
00:48there's a jmm congress government uh do you get a sense now that what started in jantar mantra is
00:54becoming nationwide that there is this pent-up anger that is boiling over in different parts
01:00of the country and are you becoming some kind of a mascot for them because the students contacted you
01:06and have said they will break their fast once you land in rachi that i do not intend to become
01:16anything
01:17like that i just want everybody to be their heroes in their own lives in their own places and i
01:24see it
01:25as that nationwide yes i think it's good for everyone for the government the ruling party that people raise
01:32their voice because that's what keeps them on track and do better and better a silent population is the
01:39worst thing that a governance system could get so i'm happy that people are raising their voice and
01:46yes in um uh there in jarkan uh the person the student was uh sitting on fast which is very
01:57good but
01:58without water and salt this is not about suicide this is about inflicting pain on yourself till the
02:05till the rulers uh understand that they have um you know committed mistakes so therefore i urged him
02:15to take water and salt and some people say it's broken uh fast no it's just that he's on fast
02:25uh with water and salt
02:27like mahatma gandhi did uh or i was also but are you planning are you planning to go to rachi
02:34i mean
02:34are you planning to go to different places to reach out to students is this something you made
02:40another uh mission in a way that wherever students feel that they've been betrayed by the examination
02:46system or by the education system sonam wangchuk will come there to show solidarity with students
02:52well it will depend on the gravity of the situation and the how just the cause is but generally yes
03:01education and environment are two subjects very close to my heart and very important for any nation so
03:09therefore i would like to support any places that are raising a just voice uh for these two
03:17subjects because very interesting uh sonam wangchuk that today the kokhrut janta party which ignited the
03:24protests at jantar mantar held at their own meeting in sambhaji nagar uh earlier aurangabad where abhijit
03:30dipke after the meeting the founder of cjp said look we don't want to be a political party we want
03:36to
03:36remain a pressure group is that an idea you support do you believe these student gen z movements
03:41should now enter politics or should they remain a pressure group should the cjp remain a pressure
03:47group so we have had this discussion often when i was on anshan with the leadership in cjp and
03:56good that they have now made a decision which is what i was urging that people have their trust and
04:03faith and they look up to something from this if it becomes a political party then it is uh against
04:10some and for some and then again it's a part of the chaos so being an apolitical pressure group it
04:17gives voice to the voiceless and uh sure uh they can at a later stage join political parties or launch
04:26solid political parties but this platform that so many people have trusted um it's great that they
04:33have finally decided this was my uh advice to them also because as you said you know even the cjp
04:41has
04:42been targeted for it's been called by many as a amadmi party proxy uh they found themselves now facing
04:50targeted attacks from both the bjp and even on occasion the congress has raised questions uh do
04:58you believe that's fair how do you see the cjp on reflection now how do you see the cjp and
05:04the
05:04jantar mantar movement do you believe that it was directed against the modi government as the bjp
05:10alleges or do you believe it's an app proxy as the congress alleges see i did a lot of study
05:17after the
05:18lieutenant governor of ladakh had supposedly pulled me up for connecting to them and thanks to him i
05:27studied and found the people very well meaning very fair and just and for the right cause not aligned
05:35to any party uh as such they have passed everybody has some experience of the past that doesn't define
05:42you but what is great i thought is that the present and the future they were not aligned to
05:49anything the criticism uh that comes only means means that you are effective when you are really
05:55effective and balanced you get criticism from all sides so i congratulate them and i'm happy when i get
06:03from all sides criticism that is when you when it means you're really balanced you know because
06:09you know it's interesting you have also faced criticism uh last september you were picked up
06:14and arrested under the national security act for your activism in ladakh now there are those who are
06:21saying sonam vangchuk is actually a plant of the deep state he has links with the bjp this entire movement
06:28was crafted in a way uh to somehow or the other uh take the attention either from the ram mandir
06:34chanda
06:35there are those i've heard who've said that it was intended to dilute the congress's attempt to raise
06:41the issue of exam leaks how do you see your own position do you see yourself also becoming more and
06:47more vulnerable to character assassination because you've tiptoed into public life i've lost track of
06:54all the different uh theories and conspiracies that i'm supposed to be in um you know these will always happen
07:03and if it doesn't happen you should worry uh every time you hurt some part the other part uh has
07:11these for you
07:12uh people tell me there's a deal like you said when i was in the jail and i came out
07:18they would they
07:18and you actually asked on your program where's the anger where's the rage and hatred or whatever
07:25why are you so calm that's my nature so now they're again asking why are you so calm was there
07:34a deal
07:34well time will tell them and i'm sure people who matter already know even these people know you think
07:42they're they really believe in what they're saying the stance change so much uh depending on who it
07:49hurts so if you're really neutral you know i'll give i'll give you an example sona because when
07:55you broke your fast around midnight with jp nada and jitendra singh ministers in this government in the
08:02frame there were those who said why did the why did sonam vangchuk need to break his fast in the
08:07presence of two union ministers uh he was supposed to be questioning them protesting against them
08:13going on a fast against them and then you're in a photograph with the two of them there must be
08:17some
08:17midnight deal okay yes i'm i'm a bit disappointed with leaders of all political parties so since you
08:27asked this one i'll tell you about this uh firstly in ladakh we consider it uh positive and victory
08:37when the government that you are protesting against sends a senior representative to say that we
08:45accept your demands and we would like to break your fast with juice or soup so it's considered a
08:51positive thing maybe it's a cultural difference uh that here we do that in all our fasts that when the
08:58government conceded they come and feed you uh from 1984 with my father when indira gandhi came
09:04to the recent ones that i was in so that part we have no problems but on top of that
09:12i had put a
09:13condition to uh the ministers nadhaji and jitendraji that i would like to take uh your uh agreement and
09:24the soup but i would like also to have members of other political parties leadership and the student
09:31leaders and i would like to do it in a joint uh gathering okay and which was uh kind of
09:39sabotaged
09:40by them coming at after midnight so then i put another condition now this people don't know i want
09:47to share it through your platform i put a condition i said okay i'll break the fast uh because there's
09:54fear of violence and all that you know on 25th night i said but the news i'll break as per
10:02my terms
10:02with pictures of opposition leaders and if some can come then i'll have them also and put the pictures
10:11together if not the real people together because of the odd timing i'll put the pictures together and
10:17release it as a joint breaking of the fast they very much agreed and i said there were some ib
10:25senior
10:25officers i said you are witness to this agreement nobody will release any images to media till i break
10:35the news with all parties present they made this promise so i did this i was expecting to do uh
10:43collect
10:44the photographs of other party leaders coming and if some can even come within five minutes the ib
10:52senior officer comes huffing and puffing and says sir i don't know how but this uh images are being run
11:00on media channels so the ministers had got their own photographers but they had pledged to me they won't
11:07release it and they they broke the promise so i've lost trust of all these leaders i think that india
11:15needs some no you you've you've revealed a very you know you've revealed to us the truth therefore
11:20behind that photograph and i'm glad you've gone on record on that uh but you know again if i may
11:27just
11:27press you once more uh those who say that sonam wangchuk has compromised say that in september 2025 the
11:35ministry of home affairs canceled uh your foreign contribution regulation act license of the ngo that
11:41you had founded uh citing financial irregularities and this is around the same time that you then get
11:46arrested all of this leads many to suspect that sonam wangchuk to preserve the work he's doing in
11:52ladakh has had to strike some kind of a deal whether it's with the lg whether it's with the government
11:57of
11:57india and therefore your prime motive at the moment is how do i save what i have built in ladakh
12:05rather
12:05than take on the government well i could have done that deal and i was uh accused of when i
12:13was released
12:14from the jail deal i could have done then i need not have sat on 26 days of hunger i
12:20could have made
12:21much bigger deals i could have said make me the education minister i could have made any deal to stop
12:27what happened if i was to make deals that's people maybe they don't know me what uh material i'm made
12:35of or they know enough but then they feed this to hoping that people will consume it i think by
12:43now
12:43people of india are more mature than taking anything that they see so uh i could have made so many
12:51deals
12:51in my 50 60 years of life that's not true it's interesting it's interesting what you're saying
12:57because even your wife gitanjali came on my show made a comment thinking that rahul gandhi felt that
13:03rahul gandhi need not have gone on dharna outside the prime minister's house that was not necessary
13:08suddenly she was targeted by the congress ecosystem who thought that gitanjali they brought out old
13:13videos of her suggesting that she has a hindutva uh bias she is linked to hindutva groups that has all
13:21of that made you feel in any way regretting you in any way therefore regret having joined this movement
13:28or do you believe it was necessary no no no regrets this is how the world is and that's why
13:36people like
13:37us need to do things no regrets definitely but as i said i'm a little disappointed with leaders of all
13:44political parties i told you how the ministers kind of breached the trust similarly when gitanjali
13:51made these comments on your show he was i would say infected by my disappointment with rahul g also
13:59because now again again i'll reveal a very important thing for the ecosystem that's saying that
14:04why did sonam break his fast with the ministers of the party actually i won't say a lot there are
14:11lots
14:12of things to say but i don't want to bring disharmony in an effort that everybody is making together to
14:18make this country fear-free injustice-free and corruption-free from the current government so i
14:25don't want to bring disharmony among stakeholders i won't say much but suffice it to say that actually
14:32we were pondering on breaking my fast through leader of the opposition rahul gandhi ji and gitanjali
14:38actually was working on that she was not against rahul ji she was working hard to see if rahul gandhi
14:47ji
14:47could break my fast she didn't get a positive response and similarly as i said at jantha mantra
14:54very few and very late came so this disappointment caught on her when she made a single comment about
15:04them there were four or five very harsh comments about bjp they didn't react but this ecosystem
15:12started trolling her trolling me so i'm really disappointed with the leadership they shouldn't
15:17be so uh you know narrow uh in their approach they should be large-hearted because she i know
15:24she was very critical of hindutva forces as well and made very strong comments but that didn't make
15:29the front page headlines but i want to ask you this you see at the end of this one month
15:33did you when you
15:35went on that fast did you ever imagine and i want an honest did you ever imagine that this would
15:40result
15:41in the resignation of a union minister was this about dharmendra pradhan's resignation or was this for
15:46you about reforming the education and examination systems so the resignation part was never a very
15:56serious thing for me i wanted to awaken the consciousness of the people in the ruling party
16:02people in the opposition or politics and the nation and resignation is a great beginning of
16:10accountability but even though the last days there were enough people pressing for resignation
16:16and the way it was doing so much damage to them i thought they if they have senses they'll do
16:24it in a day
16:24or two and if they don't uh well this nation will be awakened even more and they'll do more damage
16:31so the resignation wasn't at any point the first thing i really look forward to a big reform
16:42deep reform uh with the current government and if the current government keeps playing this way
16:48then i'm sure there'll be a change of government and then the next one will uh having experienced all
16:54this will do better no because the question uh sonam will arise that paper leaks is a systemic problem
17:03it's existed across states congress ruled states third front ruled states bjp ruled states
17:09resign getting the union minister to resign will it actually change anything we've just seen what's
17:15happening in jarkhand student protest there jmm congress government we've seen papers being leaked in
17:21other parts of the country in punjab where the armed army party is in power i want to understand is
17:26the
17:26future therefore to go to whichever state where there is an exam leak protest or is it to effect
17:32systemic changes do you see that really happening so i think resignation is a very good beginning to give
17:39the signal that you can't mess with the young generation it's paper leak is not about few bureaucrats
17:47making some money it's uh destroying a whole generation their hard work and and the next
17:53generations you know the services that they get from doctors engineers and who else so it's a great
18:02uh accountability people have in force next government will thank 10 times before they make
18:10somebody you know in charge of papers or ministries etc that way it is great and no matter
18:16which party congress or bjp or jm doesn't matter young people must raise their voice in fact it would
18:24be very bad if they raise their voice against some parties and not against others all and the parties
18:30should not be unhappy they should actually be very happy now it will be so difficult so easy for them
18:36to control the bureaucrats and the clerks who otherwise take it very easily they could use this as a very
18:44good reason to bring accountability lower down because you know one of the uh the prime minister
18:49himself has said these are misguided youth and he uh because some of the youth the kind of slogans
18:56that were raised abusive slogans directed at prime minister and uh fires were filed against a particular
19:03young girl 15 year old uh she has been viciously targeted there are fires that have also been filed
19:09against other protesters how do you see all of this do you believe these are misguided youth as the
19:14prime minister call them or are these youth who need to be listened to who need to who the government
19:21whichever government needs to have a dialogue with shouldn't the government be apologizing to the
19:26or in a way as the prime minister says i forgive them i do not approve uh abusive language uh
19:37at all
19:37but for the government it's more a signal of how frustrated our youth have become if i was in the
19:45place of the prime minister i would first tell myself how bad i've been to invoke so much uh anger
19:52in
19:53them that they are behaving like this they are not like uh you know professional uh what do you call
19:59street uh elements yeah these are genuine young people in various courses frustrated with the system
20:08it's more a signal of how bad things have gone as again as i always say i'll say take the
20:15message
20:15don't kill the messenger if irs or you know harassment to them uh is a very um low level reaction
20:24rather to look inwards introspect and reform the system so that nobody is so frustrated that they have
20:31to use such language is how a good leader should look at but but i would say miscreants and professional
20:40you know nasty mischievous elements or what do you call them um history sheeters uh mingling into these
20:50has also not to be accepted those shouldn't be accepted they should be uh taken to justice but
20:58normal students uh i really don't think should be held accountable for just using some language i see all
21:06the time against me if you look at my um ex profile it's full of abusive language where they say
21:14um they
21:14have the prime minister's face or you know which reveals which party they belong and rightly people
21:21say if they are not questioned or harassed or held accountable why this one girl or a boy who is
21:30genuinely frustrated those are paid trolls and these are genuine frustrated people so we should
21:37actually respect and take the message so you're saying make a distinction between those who resorted
21:41to violence stone pelting the history sheeters who may have infiltrated the movement but you believe
21:47still primarily this was a youth movement driven by those who are angry frustrated restless but
21:53predominantly non-violent am i correct that's what we saw at the beginning you saw people coming with
22:00flowers for the policemen you know you saw goodwill from both sides and then you saw young people
22:07taking lati on their body not reacting later later much later you saw some chasing policemen and so on
22:16those must be you know analyzed who are they and if they are found to be serious criminals
22:22senior criminals uh they should be made an example so that in future such peaceful protests that are a
22:30part of our constitution are not misused for these reasons whoever is doing that so what's your message
22:37then in conclusion for gen z this is a generation uh 52 percent under the age of 30 what would
22:43you
22:43as a wise uh what do they call us boomer like me we are boomers what would a boomer like
22:49you tell the
22:50tell gen z now what should they do next keep uh doing what you're doing fear not stop not and
23:00uh carry on
23:01and make be an example for others but always be just and fair uh you can't be doing uh one
23:09thing to one
23:10and the different treatment to another you have to be fear and fearless and fair and that's how you
23:18make the system accountable and just we have to raise voice and to the government i would say respect
23:25the voices and get the system and the act together rather than blaming and harassing uh people who are
23:34genuinely frustrated and and my final question is to you what next for sonam vangchuk you're back in
23:39your village what next for you do you go back to your retreat in the himalayas work among education
23:46that you've done for the years do you now want to get back into politics and public life in ladakh
23:51or uh will you travel across the country as i said originally as someone who joins these resistance
23:58movements what next for you all of that all of that yes i would like to work with my students
24:06my
24:07programs my innovations my solutions but now that we are connected with so many people uh who genuinely
24:14want solutions i would like to stay connected and where possible support them um yeah and play my small
24:24role so at the end of the day no regrets at the end of what's been a turbulent month in
24:29your life or
24:30many say life-changing moment you're now a recognized face across this country no regrets that you went
24:38on that 26 day fast that you faced all the character assassination at times no regrets though
24:45no regrets no regrets these are tests of you your um you know um gold is tested through various uh
24:58phases
24:59of tests to finally understand it's genuine so all such uh things i take it in my stride no regrets
25:07definitely i don't know where i don't know where your calm comes from it probably comes from from living in
25:12the mountains all these years when you live in the mountains you tend to develop a great sense of
25:17calm that smile yeah and when you have seen i have seen these things since i was 20 i have
25:26always uh
25:27taken on things that were unfair unjust and i've got a lot back also and by now i know that
25:36these can be created anytime the same people will sell you know celebrate me who used to say i'm an
25:42anti-national i should be jailed today neither was i feeling bad when they said that nor am i feeling
25:49great when the same people say he's a hero when it suits them so um similarly the other camps right
25:56make or try to make a devil of me it doesn't really affect me okay so neither a hero nor
26:02an anti-national
26:03simply a good citizen of india who believes the time for change particularly when it comes to the
26:10young has well and truly come i hope those in power beat in the center of the states are listening
26:16to your voice your smile as i said is always infectious good to have you sonam vangchuk on the
26:22show today thank you very much jayin
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