Wangchuk Ends 25-day Fast But Gen Z Will Continue to Seek Pradhan's Papers; Modi's Midnight Sermon: Breath of Fresh Air or Blast of Hot Air?; Kashmiris Punished Again for Crimes They Didn’t Commit
Plus: Podcast | The Govt’s Reaction to the Students Has Been Strong But They Do Not have the Guts to go Beyond This
A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Pratik Kanjilal, Sidharth Bhatia, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Seema Chishti, and Tanweer Alam | Contributing writers: Kalrav Joshi, Anirudh SK
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Snapshot of the day
July 23, 2026
Kalrav Joshi & Anirudh S.K.
The 56-inch dear leader has been reduced to kneeling, sorry, reel-ing.
The Cockroach Janta Party has declared that its protest at Jantar Mantar will continue until Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigns; it has also called for a nationwide peaceful protest on Friday to “stand in solidarity with victims of police brutality across India”. The outfit has welcomed inventor-activist Sonam Wangchuk’s decision to end his 25-day hunger strike, but it has refused to call off the peoples’ movement even as there are no signs of protestors budging at Jantar Mantar. That distinction matters.
Speaking to reporters at Jantar Mantar, CJP spokesperson Saurav Das says that the NDA-led Modi government has agreed to meet them for a discussion at the ‘neutral’ Constitution Club, while noting that their demands remain the same and the protests will continue till they are met.
Alongside three leaders of the All India Students’ Association, Wangchuk’s hunger strike had helped rejuvenate the CJP’s protest and transform it into the largest mobilisation of its kind Delhi has seen in recent years (and for perspective, M.K. Gandhi’s longest fast had lasted 21 days). Accepting a cup from Union ministers J.P. Nadda and Jitendra Singh at Medanta Hospital, Wangchuk said in a statement late Thursday that he is ending his fast “after long negotiations on various conditions” – which he did not specify – and, more dubiously, “in view of possible violence in the country”. His original demand, that Pradhan step down, remains unfulfilled.
Standing next to Wangchuk in hospital, Nadda read out a statement on behalf of the government, saying it is “positive on not registering cases against those protesting peacefully at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and those participating in the march to parliament on July 20”. The government is also “positively considering suitable compensations for the suicide victims of recent NEET paper leaks [sic]”.
But “people coming here are not just coming for one person,” said Danish Ali of AISA to Anant Gupta at Jantar Mantar. “We want some action, and it begins with Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation.” The point could hardly be clearer: this protest is bigger than any one person, organisation or stage.
Elsewhere, in a rather unusual move – and far from his customary 8 pm live addresses – PM Modi was compelled to issue a message to protesting students nearly at midnight. He did so without acknowledging the tens of thousands of protesters, their grievances, the students who died by suicide, or any of the movement’s core demands – the resignation of Pradhan and Modi himself, as well as reform of the education system alongside.
After he broke his silence
