Toggle Daily

Wangchuk ends 26-day hunger strike, protests go on

July 24, 2026

Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk ended his 26-day hunger strike Friday as youth protesters vowed to keep demonstrating until the education minister resigns.

AP News reports Sonam Wangchuk ending a 26-day hunger strike on Friday, a fast that helped galvanize a youth movement into one of India's largest protests in recent years, with demonstrators back on the streets vowing to continue until the education minister resigns. The Guardian, Reuters and The New York Times corroborate the essentials, Reuters adding in its own framing that the youth protesters still seek the minister's ouster. NDTV reports a different angle entirely, an inside account of how the Centre got Wangchuk to end the strike, which points at government negotiation as the untold half of the story.

AP News also reports the movement's texture: the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, Abhijeet Dipke, saying protesters will not let Sonam sir's sacrifice go in vain, using the nickname the movement has given him. The Guardian corroborates the quote. The terms of the exit are thinner. AP News carries Wangchuk's post on X saying he ended the fast in the presence of two federal ministers, after appeals from dozens of members of parliament and a long negotiation over various conditions, in view of possible violence in the country. He did not elaborate, and no other outlet fills the gap.

The end of the strike and the protests' persistence are settled. What was traded to end it is not.

Still developing

The terms of the deal are unconfirmed: Wangchuk's account of a long negotiation with two federal ministers appears only in his own X post as carried by AP News, and he did not elaborate.

How settled the reporting is

Reported 72% · Contested 0% · Developing 28%

Sources