Sonam Wangchuk, a prominent Indian engineer and activist, has been on hunger strike in Delhi since 28 June in support of youth-led protesters demanding reforms to India's education system. He is backing a satirical online movement called the Cockroach Janta Party, formed after exam paper leaks and other scandals, and his protest has become one of the most visible displays of public dissent against Narendra Modi's government since it took power in 2014.

Wangchuk has consumed only salt and water throughout the fast, losing more than 9kg, and was forcibly hospitalised by police on 18 July amid fears for his health. Best known as "Sonam sir" and a household name in India, partly through his role as inspiration for the Bollywood film Three Idiots, he has said he will only end the strike if the government takes accountability for education system failures, if he and CJP leaders can put the issue directly to parliament, or if MPs visit him in hospital with assurances. It is not his first such protest; last year he staged two lengthy hunger strikes over environmental protections for his home region of Ladakh, a Himalayan territory bordering China and Pakistan.