Activist Sonam Wangchuk has revealed that he softened his demand for Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation during negotiations with the government, making protection from legal harassment of protesting students his “non-negotiable” condition for ending his hunger strike.
“Maybe they didn’t have resignation in mind. If it doesn’t happen, it will happen in two-four days, and there are others also demanding it.” Wangchuk, speaking to Prakhar Gupta on the PGX podcast, said that by July 22 he no longer considered Pradhan’s resignation his top priority as he became increasingly concerned about the possibility of violence spreading to other cities.
“By 22 I didn’t see resignation as the first priority,” Sonam Wangchuk said, adding that he was also considering the damage the continued demand for resignation was causing. He said he began to believe that Pradhan’s resignation could happen later and that other people were also demanding it. “So I started thinking that this resignation will probably happen because they should have done much earlier,” Wangchuk said.
He said he was eventually informed around 11.30pm on July 23 that the government was willing to provide the assurance in writing.
Government interlocutors initially told him that they could provide only a verbal assurance that protesters would not face legal harassment, according to Wangchuk. Wangchuk said he supported that decision, arguing that resignation represented accountability for what had happened during the protest, even if a change of minister did not necessarily lead to major improvements in education.
