Jantar Mantar chhhoo mantar: How Wangchuk transformed a circus into a protest

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) might have been born online, but its identity is now being shaped at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar. Nineteen days into his indefinite hunger strike, Sonam Wangchuk has become much more than just a protester. For many, he is now the face, conscience and symbol of the movement.

It was June 6, the first offline protest of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), and I was at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar to report on what was then a fledgling movement. The slogans were loud but directionless. Protesters stood in scattered circles, chanting slogans among themselves. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and other spokespersons tried to rally the crowd, but the protest lacked a centre of gravity.

Then arrived activist and educationist Sonam Wangchuk. The 59-year-old activist had travelled from Ladakh to New Delhi. His presence did what slogans of the CJP leaders had failed to do. Students who had until then been standing in clusters gravitated towards one point. Their conversations stopped, cameras turned, and the scattered protest suddenly found a focal point.

That first day offered a glimpse of what the movement would eventually become. The protest was officially against Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, demanding accountability and his resignation over alleged irregularities in the education system.

But it was also a movement born out of outrage after the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant referred to unemployed youth as "cockroaches" and "parasites", inspiring the satirical identity of the Cockroach Janta Party.

The movement had several emerging faces. Dipke was its founder. Vijeta Dahiya, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka became spokespersons. Any one of them could have evolved into the public face of the agitation being held at Jantar Mantar.

Instead, the spotlight settled on the oldest man at the protest site.

The 59-year-old Sonam Wangchuk announced an indefinite hunger strike.

Nineteen days later, he remains the one constant at Jantar Mantar. Every other prominent CJP leader takes turns at the protest site, often leaving after midnight. Wangchuk does not. His world has shrunk to a mattress, two table fans, an iPad and a handful of volunteers looking after him as he continues without food.

Wangchuk's fast has transformed both the CJP's movement and its perception.

WANGCHUK WANTS A DIALOGUE WITH THE GOVERNMENT

Politicians, actors, authors and public figures have appealed to Wangchuk to end the hunger strike. Wangchuk has refused.

"I'm not in good shape but not so bad either," he said in a video message on Wednesday. "Rather than asking me to break my fast, please join me on 20th July for the peaceful March to Parliament."

His appeal was clear that do not ask him to eat, and join the movement instead.

The agitation became Wangchuk. Today, it is difficult to separate the CJP's protest from Sonam Wangchuk.

That conclusion is not merely an observation. It is visible in almost every interaction at Jantar Mantar.

PROTESTERS ARRIVING AT JANTAR MANTAR TO SUPPORT WANGCHUK

People who travel to the protest site rarely ask where the CJP leaders are. They ask where Wangchuk is. Protesters wait patiently for a glimpse of the activist whose shrinking physical strength has become the movement's greatest moral strength.

Every conversation at the protest site and now outside somehow circles back to him.

When I entered the protest site, a Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel stopped me for an anti-sabotage check. As we watched people steadily walking towards the venue, he offered a simple explanation to my question on the crowd gathering at Jantar Mantar.

Click here to read the article based on my experience of a full night at the CJP protest at Jantar Mantar.

"People are coming to see Wangchuk," the RAF jawan said. "The crowd is because of him," he added.

That assessment was repeated, in different words, by protesters throughout the day, when I had visited the protest site as a cockroach.

WHEN WANGCHUK SPEAKS, CROWD UNITES AT JANTAR MANTAR

After several days of silence, word spread that Wangchuk would address the gathering on Tuesday evening. The announcement travelled faster than any slogan.

Within minutes, protesters who had been sitting in scattered groups converged before the stage. Camera phones rose above hundreds of heads. Even passers-by stopped walking. The same visual I had witnessed on June 6 unfolded again.

"We didn't know he would speak today," a young protester standing beside me said. "It was a surprise."

Wangchuk's speech lasted only a few minutes, but it reinforced why people had gathered.

He first acknowledged those who had quietly joined him in fasting. "Our fasting might not immediately bring resignations. But if it awakens people, then it has served its purpose," he said.

"One resignation alone changes very little. The day people awaken, every department of the Government of India will see change," Wangchuk added.

His message shifted the conversation beyond one minister's resignation. The fast, he suggested, was about awakening public consciousness.

HOW ABHIJEET DIPKE AND OTHER CJP FACES LOST THE PLOT

While Wangchuk emerged as the face and strength of the protest, other CJP leaders faded.

As Wangchuk's moral stature grew, the movement's younger leaders increasingly found themselves defending controversies rather than driving the protest. Dipke remains the organisational face of the CJP, but criticism has steadily mounted around him.

The first question emerged when Wangchuk began his indefinite fast. Why was Dipke not fasting alongside him?

Dipke explained that he suffered from migraines. Supporters argued someone had to manage the protest. Critics of the movement remained unconvinced.

The criticism intensified after videos surfaced online showing Dipke feasting on kachoris and noodles while Wangchuk continued his fast. Other clips showing CJP members playing cricket at the protest site further fuelled questions about whether the movement was treating its own protest seriously.

Vijeta Dahiya, another prominent CJP spokesperson, also came under scrutiny over remarks on Hindu deities and widely circulated dancing videos from the protest site.

The scepticism was visible not only online but also at Jantar Mantar. Around 1 am on Tuesday night, after Wangchuk had gone to sleep, several CJP leaders were nowhere in sight.

A small group of protesters discussed the absence. "Someone from among them should stay with Sonam sir," one protester remarked. "This shows they are not serious about the protest," an elderly man in the group responded.

Whether fair or not, such conversations reflected a widening gap between the credibility people attached to Wangchuk and the scepticism directed at other organisers.

HOW WANGCHUK'S FAST MADE CJP GAIN MOMENTUM

The fast until death of Sonam Wangchuk changed the CJP movement. In its early days, the CJP protest was often dismissed as a satirical campaign led by students.

Wangchuk's hunger strike challenged that perception. His decision to hold the hunger strike until Dharmendra Pradhan resigned gave the movement a moral centre that slogans alone could not provide.

It also drew attention far beyond Jantar Mantar.

Only after Wangchuk's hunger strike crossed two weeks did prominent opposition politicians begin publicly engaging with the protest. Writers, actors and civil society figures appealed to him to end his fast. Media attention also increased. The conversation revolved around Sonam Wangchuk.

Supporters now arrive not simply to protest against failures in the education system but to stand beside a man whose physical suffering has become the movement's most important aspect.

Wangchuk, however, continues to insist that sympathy alone is not enough for the movement to survive. He is reiterating that he wants a dialogue with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government and continues to demand the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan.

WANGCHUK'S HUNGER STRIKE ACHIEVED EXACTLY WHAT CJP WANTED

Movements often begin with organisations but eventually become identified with individuals who embody their cause. At Jantar Mantar, this transition is impossible to miss.

The Cockroach Janta Party organised the protest. The leaders of the CJP built it. Its volunteers organised it.

But it was Sonam Wangchuk who gave the movement its face.

On June 6, his arrival brought together a scattered crowd struggling to find a common centre. Now, after 19 days into his indefinite hunger strike, Wangchuk has done something even bigger for the CJP. He has become the protest itself.

People may arrive at Jantar Mantar for a demonstration organised by the CJP. They leave remembering a 59-year-old man lying quietly on a mattress beneath two table fans, refusing food while urging others not to worry about his hunger, but to stand up for the cause that compelled him to embrace it.

For the CJP, the protest may have begun with a satirical movement. In the public imagination, it now has one unmistakable face, Sonam Wangchuk.

- Ends