PUCL condemns the attempt to suppress the peaceful satyagraha by Sonam Wangchuk and Cockroach Janata Party
PUCL is outraged by the action of the Delhi Police in forcibly taking a fasting Sonam Wangchuk away from the site of his hunger fast in Jantar Mantar on the 21st day of his hunger strike. This unconscionable action by the Delhi Police of forcibly disrupting a peaceful Gandhian protest which sought to awaken India’s conscience, is not based on protecting the health of Sonam Wangchuk. The arrest amounts to a belated recognition by the Government that neither the protestor Sonam Wangchuk nor the issues being expressed by the youth can be ignored anymore. The Modi government had the opportunity to heed the legitimate demand of the protesters that the Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan resign, thereby addressing the cause of the protest. Instead the government has sought to stifle the voice of the protest through the forcible arrest of Sonam Wangchuk and his lodgment in Safdarjung Hospital.
Sonam Wangchuk is fasting for a reason, namely the demand that the Education Minister resign. Instead of addressing the cause of the hunger fast, the government seems intent on silencing the moral voice of Sonam Wangchuk. The fact that even while a fasting Sonam Wangchuk was forcibly removed, the other students Neha, Ameen, Manish and Hamad were allowed to continue to fast only indicates that as far as the calculus of the state was concerned it was not concern for the health of Sonam Wangchuk which was the reason behind the arrest. The only reason for this differential treatment is that in the state’s calculation, it was Sonam Wangchuk who had emerged as a galvanizing presence in drawing more and more people to Jantar Mantar and therefore he had to be removed. According to Sonam Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali Angmo, the doctors at Safdarjung have refused to share Sonam Wangchuk’s health report, even while asserting that his potassium level is low. This lack of transparency by the doctors, led Angmo to lose trust in the hospital and made her move the Delhi High Court asking for Sonam Wangchuk to be shifted to a hospital of the family’s choice which they could trust.
While the Delhi High Court rejected the petition, the issue of transparency by the hospital authorities in sharing medical information and not pursuing any treatment without the consent of the family remains alive. The PUCL asserts that the Government has not demonstrated that the arrest of Sonam Wangchuk was in accordance with the judgment of the Delhi High Court which had directed that the ‘ medical condition of Shri Sonam Wangchuk shall, clinically and otherwise, be regularly monitored on daily basis’ and ‘depending on the opinion of the Doctors’, ‘medical intervention’ to ‘check his deteriorating health condition, shall also be taken.’ Neither the family members nor the leaders of the Cockroach Janata Party were shown the medical reports, necessitating hospitalization. Now the legitimate concern is that Safdarjung Hospital acting under the dictates of the Modi Government will without taking either Sonam Wangchuk or his next of kin, Gitanjali Angmo into confidence go ahead with forcible treatment. In the land of Gandhiji, a hunger fast is meant to awaken the conscience of the state. However, far from their conscience being awakened, the Modi government is an action of astonishing hubris, seeming to be moving from a strategy of ignoring the voice of the youth to actively suppressing it. The Government should read the tea leaves and realise that any attempt to interfere with the legitimate expression of the anger and anguish of the youth of this country will backfire on the government itself. The Government must ensure that the right to assembly is protected on the 20thJuly when the students under the banner of the Cockroach Janata Party have asserted that they will march to parliament to assert their demands. The PUCL asserts that instead of going down an unconstitutional path of suppressing a peaceful satyagraha by Sonam Wangchuk and the Cockroach Janata Party, the Modi government must pay heed to their legitimate demands. It is up to the Modi Government to decide whether it wants to go down in history as a government which suppressed the voice of the youth or listened to it. It still has the chance.