A delegation of 15 MPs from the INDIA bloc was on Wednesday (July 22, 2026) stopped by the Haryana Police from meeting climate activist and educator Sonam Wangchuk at the Medanta Hospital here. The MPs later handed over a letter to his wife Gitanjali J. Angmo, urging the activist to end his fast but continue the protest.
Led by Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, the delegation said 55 MPs had signed the letter. ”There is no permission to meet him and hand over this letter. They are saying it is a medical protocol,” Mr. Singh said outside the hospital. He added: “What is the job of the police here? Why are they stopping us? Do they want to kill Sonam Wangchuk?”
The delegation included MPs from Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Communist Party of India, and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. Before it arrived, security outside the hospital was tightened with the deployment of an anti-riot vehicle and a commando squad.
“It is a matter of grave regret that we were not allowed to meet him and it is yet another example of dictatorship,” Mr. Singh said. “The court says that he is not under detention, still you can see the huge presence of policemen... I am confident that he will return to the agitation,” he added.
Samajwadi Party MP Rajeev Rai said Ms. Angmo told them that Mr. Wangchuk wanted to end his fast after receiving their letter. “We were not allowed to meet him and give the letter. It smacks of a conspiracy that the government does not want him to withdraw his fast-unto death,” he said.
Speaking outside the hospital, Ms. Angmo said her husband’s “vital parameters are fine, but muscle mass is decreasing.”
“It is not life threatening, but he has weakened,” she said, adding that Mr. Wangchuk had decided to break his fast after receiving the letter but is seeking an assurance from the government that “no injustice is done to protesters.”
“Sonam has written to Union Ministers J. P. Nadda and Jitendra Singh that he needs assurance that nothing wrong would be done to the students. No FIRs would be registered against them,” she said. “This entire agitation is for the students and their future, so it is our responsibility that they are not harmed in any way,” she said.
Ms. Angmo alleged that “it was their [police] own people who had mixed with the students and threw stones” during the July 20 march, but “still the students did not get instigated”.
She said leaders from Ladakh had been waiting outside for four hours and were not allowed to meet Mr. Wangchuk. “Even the hospital authorities are harassed due to the huge police presence outside his ICU... But the hospital is taking very good care of him,” she said.
Haji Asgar Ali Karbalai, co-chairman of Kargil Democratic Alliance, who had come from Ladakh with other leaders, told The Hindu that they came three days ago to see their “hero”, but were not allowed by the security personnel. “Yesterday we went to Safdarjung hospital. The security personnel did not allow us to visit him. We came here today, waiting to meet him for the past four hours. The police personnel said that there is instruction from the higher authorities that no one should visit him,” he said.
Mr. Wangchuk was admitted to Medanta on Tuesday (July 21, 2026) evening and is currently in the ICU, the hospital said in a health bulletin on Wednesday (July 22, 2026) afternoon.
He was being treated by a multi-disciplinary team of doctors. “Presently, he is stable, oriented and his vital signs are within accepted parameters. All treatment being administered to him is in accordance with his informed consent,” the bulletin stated.
Published - July 22, 2026 07:20 pm IST