OHMEGA/MONSTER

Sonam Wangchuk ends 26-day Delhi hunger strike, but exam-leak protest demands continue

Wangchuk stopped fasting after negotiations and assurances of no legal action and parliamentary discussion, yet his resignation demand and the broader campaign — along with police crackdown measures — remain unresolved.

India

Sonam Wangchuk ended a 26-day hunger strike in New Delhi, but the story did not end there. The protest he had helped amplify was rooted in India’s exam-fairness fight: alleged paper leaks, especially around NEET, India’s national medical entrance exam, and demands for accountability, reform and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

That first fact matters because it sets the frame. Wangchuk’s fast was not the movement itself; it was one pressure tactic inside a wider campaign. Reuters said the Cockroach Janta Party, a group associated with the protest movement, had supporters still camping in Delhi and said they would remain until their demands were met, while the BBC said protesters continued at Jantar Mantar even after Wangchuk stopped fasting.

So why did he stop? The best-supported answer is that he did so after negotiations and because he feared the situation could turn more violent. Reuters described the end of the fast as a negotiated move taken in view of possible violence, and BBC reporting adds that Wangchuk said he had assurances that no legal action would be taken against protesters at Jantar Mantar or those who marched to Parliament. Parliament is India’s national legislature, and in this dispute the promise was that lawmakers would take up the leak, accountability and reform issues there.

But the bargain was limited. Wangchuk said he had also been assured that the alleged NEET paper leak, accountability in the examination system and wider exam reform would be discussed in Parliament. He said he had received no specific promise that Pradhan would resign, and the gathered sources do not establish whether the assurances were written or merely verbal.

That is the core reason this is a phase change, not closure. The resignation demand stayed alive, the coalition stayed mobilized, and the hunger strike’s end was best read as a tactical pause rather than a settlement of the underlying dispute. Reuters said the movement would continue protesting, and its supporters were still demanding Pradhan’s exit.

The government, meanwhile, mixed remedial signals with coercive crowd control. Reuters reported that police used tear gas and batons to disperse marchers trying to reach Parliament, while Delhi Police described the protesters as unruly, aggressive and violent and said they had violated prohibitory orders — orders restricting gatherings or march routes issued by authorities.

The crowd-control side was not limited to the street. The Ministry of Home Affairs ordered mobile internet suspended for eight hours around Jantar Mantar, and the official order says it was justified by public safety, public order and the prevention of incitement.

At the same time, Delhi and the federal government were also signaling action on the underlying grievance. Reuters said Modi told lawmakers the government had acted on exam irregularities, 13 people had been arrested and jailed, and a re-examination had been successfully conducted. Reuters and the BBC also reported promises of tougher anti-leak legislation; the BBC said a draft would go to cabinet and then Parliament.

That does not settle the controversy, though. The NTA — the National Testing Agency, which runs NEET — said before the exam that NEET (UG) 2026 was secure and explicitly warned candidates not to believe rumors or fraudulent claims of paper leaks. But Reuters reported that the May exam was later cancelled after papers were found to have been leaked, that a retest followed, and that the issue had already triggered major student anger. The result is a disputed record, not a cleanly closed one.

The policing dispute is similar: the state says it was maintaining order, while other reporting shows harm. The Hindu reported that the Supreme Court declined to urgently take up allegations of police excesses during the crackdown and refused to examine videos, but it also said at least one injured protester had pellet-gun injuries. That is not a merits ruling on police conduct; it is evidence that the dispersal was not simply routine or harmless.

Put plainly, the only clearly supported “settlement” was Wangchuk’s own decision to stop fasting after reported assurances. What was not settled was the resignation demand, the protest coalition’s momentum, or the public argument over how far the state had gone — or should go — in responding to both a grievance movement and a public-order problem.

Source recordSources / claims / limits

How this piece is framed: A tactical stop inside an ongoing protest cycle: the news is the end of Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike, but the story’s center of mass is whether anything was actually settled — and the evidence says only partly. Wangchuk appears to have paused one pressure tactic after negotiations and assurances, while the broader movement kept its demands, the state kept combining remedial steps with crowd control, and the core exam-leak controversy remained disputed in detail.

Sources

Claims, and how far we tracked each down

  • [confirmed] The protests began more than a month ago over alleged leaks in some of India’s competitive entrance exams. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] The movement has broadened to include demands for government accountability, examination reforms, and compensation for families of students who died by suicide after exam paper leaks. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] Sonam Wangchuk ended a 26-day hunger strike on Friday. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] The protest movement is demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] The CJP-led protest activity at Jantar Mantar included a nationwide call for peaceful protests on July 24. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [likely] Wangchuk ended the fast after a long negotiation on various conditions and in view of possible violence in the country. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] BBC reports Wangchuk said he ended his hunger strike after the government assured him that no legal action would be taken against protesters at Jantar Mantar and those who marched to parliament. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] BBC reports Wangchuk also said he received assurances that the alleged NEET paper leak, accountability in the examination system, and wider examination reforms would be discussed in parliament. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] BBC reports Wangchuk said he had received no specific promise on Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] The read BBC text does not specify whether the assurances Wangchuk cited were written or verbal. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] Police used tear gas and batons to disperse marchers trying to reach Parliament in the days before Wangchuk ended his strike. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] Delhi Police said protesters were unruly, aggressive, and violent and that they deliberately violated prohibitory orders in force. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [likely] The official police narrative presented the crackdown as an order-maintenance response rather than an unprovoked use of force. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] The Union Ministry of Home Affairs ordered mobile internet suspended within a 1.5-km radius of Jantar Mantar from 4 pm to midnight on July 23, 2026. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] The Union Home Secretary’s order suspended mobile internet services from 16:00 on 23 July 2026 to 24:00 on 23 July 2026 within a 1.5-km radius of Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, under section 20(2)(b) of the Telecommunications Act, 2023 and the Telecommunications (Temporary Suspension of Services) Rules, 2024. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] The shutdown was justified by the government on public safety, public order, and prevention of incitement grounds under the Telecommunications Act, 2023 and related rules. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] Reuters reports that Modi said the government had acted on exam irregularities, 13 people had been arrested and jailed, and a re-examination had been successfully conducted. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] The Indian government announced fast-track courts and a proposed law to crack down on exam paper leaks while the protests were ongoing. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] The NTA’s 2 May 2026 press release framed NEET (UG) 2026 as secure and transparent and explicitly warned candidates not to believe rumors or fraudulent claims of question-paper leaks. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [likely] In the gathered sources, the leak controversy is not resolved as a clean denial; instead, the official response is better characterized as acknowledgement, remedial action, and anti-misinformation messaging. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] The Supreme Court declined to initiate suo motu proceedings over alleged police excesses during the July 20 crackdown and did not engage with videos offered at the hearing. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)
  • [confirmed] The Hindu report says at least one of nearly 80 injured protesters sustained pellet-gun injuries and was receiving treatment, which complicates any claim that the dispersal was routine or non-injurious. · read in full (as of 2026-07-24)