The protest taking place at Jantar Mantar in Delhi may be good for the country, but I do not believe that the people sitting there genuinely have the country's welfare as their primary goal. I do not support them because, in my view, they are not protesting against the government as an institution; they are only protesting against Narendra Modi and his party. If the Congress were in power today, I don't think these same people would be sitting at Jantar Mantar. Instead, perhaps those who are currently in power would be the ones protesting.

I will not comment on Sonam Wangchuk, but if his hunger strike is truly for the welfare of the country, then I support him.

Until 2024, I was an andhbhakt of the BJP. I couldn't tolerate hearing even a single negative word about Modi. But now, I find myself criticizing him harshly. Even so, I still did not vote for Congress. I would rather cast my vote for NOTA because the opposition leaders, who should have been leading protests and holding the government accountable, are nowhere to be seen.

I know , respected Prime Minister , that you will probably never see this message amongst the thousands that are sent each day . But I'll voice my request nonetheless. I understand that encouraging protests or agreeing to demands is scary as it may make the government seem weak and it can shake the government and so many other issues will emerge . All I want to say is that those issues are important but not as important as the life of a scientist, a reformer , a visionary who has done immense work throughout his life in education and environmental engineering and his work in Ladakh is a symbol of just how much of a patriot he is . Don't let a true patriot die . He is a Deshbhakt and when one of the most wise and pure hearted Deshbhakt is fasting against the failure of the system then please take him seriously. He is not wrong . Im not talking about the resignation of the education minister , that decision rests with you but before all that one thing is of higher priority , please at the very least , please just talk to Sonam sir that's all I ask for. Please talk to him . He deserves better than silence .

Update: I'm not trying to say Sonam sir is more important than everyone else . Lots of students are doing strike just like him and they matter equally. My point is that Sonam sir is the most credible, respected ( that the government can't character assasinate or manipulate people against ) person there and if he with all this patriotic achievements stands against the government then they must accept they are wrong and at the very least talk to him or the protesters .

Can a democracy truly function when its citizens no longer feel compelled to pay attention? Somewhere along the way, we've become spectators to our own country's problems. We consume politics like endless content, debate for a few hours, choose a side, and then scroll to the next headline. The outrage fades long before the consequences do.

A hunger strike is among the oldest forms of peaceful protest because it asks the public one simple thing: to stop, notice, and question. Whether you agree with Sonam Wangchuk is secondary. The real question is why concerns over the integrity of an examination system affecting millions of students struggle to command sustained public attention.

Instead of asking what went wrong, who should be held accountable, or how trust in public institutions can be restored, we spend more time debating the credibility of the person speaking than the issue being raised. It's a pattern that repeats itself every time someone protests.

Support for an issue shouldn't depend on complete agreement with the individual behind it. But we’ve somehow managed to convince ourselves that unless a messenger clears every ideological purity test, their message itself deserves to be ignored. It’s an impossible standard that only serves those already in power.

The most worrying trend isn't disagreement, it's indifference. Democracies can survive fierce arguments. They struggle when people stop caring enough to ask difficult questions.

Maybe the greatest threat isn't a single scandal or a single institution failing. Maybe it's a society that has become so accustomed to crisis that it no longer feels shocked by it.

A democracy isn't weakened only by those who abuse power. It's weakened when the rest of us slowly stop demanding better.

Hey Everyone!

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Dm for any questions

Every social media app is filled with content about protest. Its impractical for me to travel to Delhi to show my support. I was thinking what is the best way i can choose to show support. I saw online someone posted a reel saying send a post card to ministry of education saying "get well soon" (munabhai reference), which got me thinking, prime minister of india is a very legit man and has a website pmopg.gov.in where one can create a account and send a digital letter to PM modi.

I know that it literally doesn't mean it will send a letter to pm's desk, but atleast it will go somewhere. Someone will read it, and if everyone outside and inside india who cannot join the protest in person sends a letter, someone has to pay attention to it or atleast it will be in their conscious. My question is who all think this is a good way to show support? I am willing to put my own money in an run an ad campaign on insta and Facebook to get traction and make sure people in every corner of world does something other than just posting story and making reel.

In the noise of our democracy, the quietest protests are often the most deafening. Today, as we witness Sir Sonam Wangchuk battling the bitter cold and government indifference for the future of Ladakh, we are haunted by a chilling historical parallel.

Eight years ago, another distinguished scientist-turned-satyagrahi, Professor G.D. Agrawal (Swami Sanand), sat in a similar silence. He waited 111 days for a response that never came—until his heart stopped.

If you want to understand the gravity of Sonam Wangchuk’s current struggle, you must understand the tragedy of Professor Agrawal.

1. The Man: Who Was G.D. Agrawal?

Before he was a sanyasi, G.D. Agrawal was not just an activist; he was the architect of India’s environmental regulations.

• The Scientist: He was a Professor at IIT Kanpur and the first Member-Secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). He held a PhD from UC Berkeley.
• The Believer: He bridged science and spirituality, believing that the Ganga was not just a water body (H2O) but a living ecological system with self-purifying qualities (Aviral and Nirmal).
• The Shift: Realizing that policy papers were ignored by politicians, he renounced his comfortable life in 2011 to become Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, using Satyagraha (fasting) as his last weapon.

2. The Struggle: The 111-Day Fast (2018)

In 2018, at the age of 86, Professor Agrawal began his final fast at Matri Sadan, Haridwar. His demands were not radical; they were scientific necessities for the river's survival:

• Stop Hydroelectric Projects: Halt the construction of dams on the pristine upper reaches (Alaknanda, Mandakini, etc.) that were choking the river’s flow.
• The Ganga Act: Enact the Ganga Protection Management Act (a draft he helped prepare) to give the river legal rights.
• End Mining: Stop illegal riverbed mining in the Kumbh area.

3. The Timeline of Apathy

This is where the story mirrors the current reality of Ladakh:

• June 22, 2018: He begins his fast.
• The Letters: He wrote three separate letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, explaining the science and his demands.
  • Result: He received no direct reply from the PM. The only response was a bureaucratic letter from Minister Nitin Gadkari urging him to stop.
• October 9, 2018: Disheartened by the government's prioritization of "development" over the environment, he renounced water.
• October 10, 2018: Authorities forcefully removed him from his protest site to AIIMS Rishikesh, citing his health.
• October 11, 2018: He passed away from cardiac arrest. He died feeling betrayed by the very system he had served as a scientist.

The irony: Condolences poured in on Twitter after his death, from the very leaders who ignored his letters while he was alive.

4. The Parallel: Sonam Wangchuk (The Current Struggle)

Today, Sonam Wangchuk stands where Professor Agrawal stood. The parallels are terrifyingly exact:

• The Profile: Like Agrawal, Wangchuk is a man of science (Engineer, Innovator, SECMOL founder) who has dedicated his life to solutions, not just problems.
• The Cause: Just as Agrawal fought for the ecological integrity of the Ganga, Wangchuk is fighting for the ecological integrity of the Himalayas. His demand for the Sixth Schedule is essentially a demand for legal protection against unchecked industrial exploitation—exactly what Agrawal’s "Ganga Act" was.
• The Method: Both resorted to the Gandhian tool of indefinite fasting (Climate Fast) because all other avenues of dialogue were shut.
• The Response: The "deafening silence." Just as Delhi ignored the letters from Haridwar in 2018, there is a perceived lack of urgent, high-level engagement with the demands rising from Ladakh today.

History has a cruel way of repeating itself. In 2018, we lost a legendary IIT professor because the state calculated that his protest could be waited out. It ended in a national tragedy.

Sonam Wangchuk's struggle is not just about Ladakh; it is a test of whether our democracy has learned anything from the death of G.D. Agrawal. We cannot afford to lose another visionary to the silence of the administration.

I really don't know where else to ask, so I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction.

Our house help lost her husband about two months ago. He was the sole breadwinner of the family. She now has to support herself and her daughter, who's in 9th grade, on a salary of just ₹3,000 a month.

Things have only gotten worse. Her water supply motor has been broken for the past two weeks, so she hasn't had access to clean water and has been bathing and washing dishes using the dirty water from her cooler because that’s all that she has. Today, she also fell on her way to work and shattered her phone screen.

To make matters even harder, some of her relatives are trying to claim her late husband's property.

I want to help her, but I'm just a student with no income of my own, and my parents are also struggling financially so they aren’t in a position to help either.

Does anyone know of any government schemes, NGOs, legal aid services, or any other resources that could help her? Any advice would mean a lot. Thank you.

It's amazing how passionately we support celebrities, celebrate their successes, defend them online, and proudly call ourselves their biggest fans. But when it comes to issues that directly affect ordinary people, the silence often feels disappointing.

Sonam Wangchuk has been on a hunger strike for days, raising concerns that he believes are important for the country and for future generations. Whether someone agrees with his demands or not, his commitment has sparked an important conversation.

This isn't about blaming Bollywood or expecting every celebrity to speak on every issue. Everyone has the right to decide when and how they use their voice. But as fans, maybe we should also reflect on who our real heroes are.

For me, a real hero is someone who stands up for people, takes risks for a cause they believe in, and is willing to make personal sacrifices for it.

Instead of blindly worshipping celebrities, perhaps we should value those who work for society with the same passion.

What do you think? Should public figures use their influence more often for issues that affect the public, or should we not expect that from them?