For 17 days, Sonam Wangchuk has been sitting on an indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar, demanding Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over the NEET-UG paper leak and a string of other failures. His weight has dropped by roughly 8.5 kg, and his blood pressure and blood sugar levels are falling. 

On July 14, Sudhir Chaudhary decided he was worried about him. His expression of worry was revealing. “Nobody wants #SonamWangchuk to die,” he wrote on X. “The person who can save his life today is Abhijit Dipte. Convince him to end his hunger strike. Take him to a hospital.” He went on: “If Abhijit wants to make a point, he can start a hunger strike himself but spare Sonam. Don’t turn an old man’s life into a political campaign.”

The reaction on X was swift and largely unimpressed. Dipke was having none of it, tweeting: “Not everyone can be controlled the way the govt controls you, Tihari ji.”

Others pointed out how this prominent member of the Indian media was seeking accountability from protesters and not the government they are protesting against. 

And, of course, there were those who asked why his first instinct, watching a man’s health deteriorate over a stated demand, was to interrogate the protester rather than the minister who could end it by resigning. 

Chaudhary, however, repeated and extended the argument on his primetime DD News show that evening. “Abhijit Dipke khud 30 saal ke yuva hain aur vah apni maange manwane ke liye ek 59 saal ke vyakti se bhookh haadtaal karva rahe hain aur khud anshan par nahi baithe” (Abhijit Dipke is himself a 30-year-old young man; yet, to get his demands met, he is having a 59-year-old man go on a hunger strike instead of undertaking the fast himself). 

What was his prescription?

Chaudhary said that if Dipke wanted to take the protest further, he should first get Wangchuk to end his fast and get him admitted to hospital, and only then, if he wished, go on a fast himself — adding that he was “fully confident” Dipke could sustain a fast “for a much longer period than Sonam Wangchuk,” given that he was young and only 30.

As for the people, particularly celebrities and eminent personalities, posting appeals online, Chaudhary told them they had the wrong audience: “Yh apeel kisee aur se nheen desh ke logon se nheen blki Abhijit Dipke se krnee chahie kyonki vhee ek vykti hain jo sonm vangchuk kee jan bcha skte hain.” (This appeal should not be made to anyone else – not even the people of the country – but to Abhijit Dipke, because he is the only person who can save Sonam Wangchuk’s life.)

It’s a not-so-slick piece of reframing. Wangchuk began this fast entirely of his own volition, has resisted repeated appeals from people around him at Jantar Mantar to break it, and has stated his own terms for ending it. None of that features in Chaudhary’s monologue. 

Instead, the man on hunger strike becomes an instrument of someone else’s ambition, and the person with the actual power to end the crisis – Dharmendra Pradhan, or the Modi government – disappears from the frame entirely. Chaudhary gives the game away with this line: “Is poore prakaran se aisa lagta hai ki jaan kisi aur ki ja rahi hai aur rajneeti kisi aur ki chamak rahi hai (It appears from this entire episode that someone else is losing their life, while someone else is reaping the political benefits). 

Ironically, it’s the same anchor, who less than a year ago, was piling on wild allegations against Wangchuk after violence broke out in Leh last September. Back then, Wangchuk was detained under the National Security Act. Those charges were revoked six months later.   

Chaudhary did not treat Wangchuk’s detention as a story about a crackdown on a protest leader. He treated it as an unmasking. “Aaj unka asli chehra hum desh ke saamne rakhenge (today we will show the country his real face),” Chaudhary said on September 26. 

On Wangchuk's public persona, he said: “Woh aksar bhookh hartaal par baithkar apne aap ko ek Gandhivaadi sabit karne ki koshish karte hain” – he often sits on hunger strikes to try and prove himself a Gandhian – “lekin is sabke peeche, woh Ladakh ke yuvaon mein asantosh paida karke... sarkar ke khilaf vidroh karna chahte hain” – but behind all this, he wants to provoke rebellion against the government by stoking discontent among Ladakh’s youth. 

Set those two Chaudhary broadcasts side by side, and the throughline doesn’t seem to be a concern for Wangchuk’s wellbeing.

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