Sonam Wangchuk explains why he softened demand for Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation

Activist Sonam Wangchuk has explained why he softened his demand for Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation during negotiations with the government, saying his priority shifted to securing protection from legal harassment for student protesters. Speaking on the PGX podcast with Prakhar Gupta, Wangchuk said that by July 22 he no longer considered Pradhan's resignation his first priority and that his focus had moved to ensuring students who took part in the protests would not face criminal cases or other legal harassment.

Wangchuk said the cost of keeping the resignation demand at the centre of the protest had become clearer by that point. "By 22 I didn't see resignation as the first priority," he said, adding that he believed the resignation could happen later and that others were also pressing for it. "Maybe they didn't have resignation in mind. If it doesn't happen, it will happen in two-four days, and there are others also demanding it."

Wangchuk said his concerns about escalation shaped his decision. He cited a "violent buildup" he said had occurred around July 23, including preparations near metro stations and deployment in Delhi, and said he feared the unrest could spread to other cities. "If two lakh people in Ladakh had so many people killed, what could happen?" he said, according to the podcast, referring to the possibility of violence spreading beyond the capital. He said that if protests spread to other cities, the situation could become a "civil war situation."

The non-negotiable condition

Wangchuk said his main condition in the talks was that no legal harassment should be directed at protesting students. "So I softened the resignation demand a little and said — you can consider accountability through resignation, but the non-negotiable is that you will not do legal harassment," he said.

He linked this demand to his experience after the September 2025 violence in Ladakh)Skip. More than 80 cases were still pending a year later, Wangchuk said, and people who had tried to prevent the violence had themselves been jailed. He said this made him fear a similar situation could arise around the Delhi protest.

Wangchuk said government interlocutors initially offered only a verbal assurance that protesters would not face legal harassment, which he rejected. "I said, 'If it happens, it will happen; later there is no honour in anything,'" he recounted. He said he demanded a written commitment that no FIR would be filed and no legal harassment would occur against students exercising their fundamental rights.

The negotiations followed meetings with Union ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh, who met Wangchuk at the hospital on the night of July 21. At that stage, Wangchuk's demands included accountability through resignation, compensation for the victims, and a parliamentary discussion.

Wangchuk said he still believed Pradhan's resignation would come, albeit not as the immediate priority. "I started thinking that this resignation will probably happen because they should have done much earlier," he said. "Maybe they didn't have resignation in mind. If it doesn't happen, it will happen in two-four days, and there are others also demanding it."

He said he softened the demand explicitly: "So I softened the resignation demand a little and said — you can consider accountability through resignation, but the non-negotiable is that you will not do legal harassment."

Wangchuk also cited reports of a "violent buildup" on the night of July 23 in Delhi as a factor in his thinking, saying he feared that if unrest spread to Mumbai and other cities, it could escalate into a "civil war situation."

Despite Wangchuk's softened stance, leaders of the CJP (Chhatra Janata Party) decided to continue their protest and maintain the demand for Pradhan's resignationretraction. Wangchuk said he supported the CJP's continued demand for resignation.