- Educator Sonam Wangchuk began a hunger strike demanding Education Minister Pradhan's resignation
- Over 257,000 people signed 51 online petitions backing Wangchuk's demands by July 17
- Wangchuk's protest sparked 630,000+ posts and 8.3 million engagements on social media
The indefinite hunger strike by educator-activist Sonam Wangchuk demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has sparked a surge of online support, with more than 2.5 lakh people signing petitions backing his campaign.
Wangchuk, a Ladakhi educator and innovator, had been on a hunger strike at Delhi's Jantar Mantar since June 28 under the banner of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), protesting alleged irregularities and paper leaks in competitive examinations. On the 21st day of his fast, July 18, he was forcibly taken to a hospital by Delhi Police.
Online Petitions
As concerns over Wangchuk's health grew, supporters turned to online petition platform Change.org to mobilise public backing. Since July 13, at least 51 petitions supporting Wangchuk and his demands have been launched on the platform. Of these, 29 were started on July 16 alone, the day the Delhi High Court directed the Centre to take all necessary steps to protect his life.
As of 5 pm on July 17, the 51 petitions had collectively attracted more than 257,000 signatures. The petitions express solidarity with Wangchuk, urge the government to engage in dialogue with him, call for Pradhan's resignation, and demand stronger safeguards against examination paper leaks.
Online petitions are frequently used by citizens to rally support for causes, raise awareness and draw public attention to issues of concern.
Buzz on X
Wangchuk's fast has also generated significant discussion on social media. According to social listening platform Talkwalker, more than 6.3 lakh posts mentioning "Sonam Wangchuk" were published on X between July 11 and July 17.
These posts generated over 8.3 million engagements, including likes, reposts, replies and bookmarks.
Conversations around Wangchuk have centred on his health, paper leaks, education reforms, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and reactions from opposition leaders.
Google Search Spike
Interest in Wangchuk has also surged on Google. Search activity began rising sharply from July 12 as images and updates from Jantar Mantar circulated widely online.
To gauge the scale of public interest, online searches for "Sonam Wangchuk" were compared with the commonly searched term "Weather today". Google Trends data showed that searches for Wangchuk surpassed those for "Weather today" on both July 15 and July 16.
Search activity related to Wangchuk also exceeded interest in several other trending topics, including actor Vijay's film Jana Nayagan and Tamil Nadu political developments during the same period.
Users were primarily searching for details about Wangchuk, the reason behind his protest and his association with the character that inspired Aamir Khan's role in the film 3 Idiots.
March to Parliament
Wangchuk has announced plans to lead a march to Parliament to press for his demands. The 59-year-old engineer has lost more than 8.5 kg during the fast and is admitted to a hospital in Delhi.
Earlier, he maintained that his condition remained stable for someone undergoing a prolonged hunger strike and had ruled out ending the protest without a response from the government.
"It is not bad... So that is why I can walk for many days now. Yes, there is weakness... My muscles are getting tired... but my heart and core are still fine," Wangchuk had said, urging supporters to join a protest planned at Jantar Mantar on July 20.
