NEW DELHI: Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk on Sunday began a hunger strike at Ladakh Bhawan in the national capital after the Delhi Police denied him permission to protest at the iconic Jantar Mantar.
“After trying everything possible to find a legitimate place for our anshan fast in New Delhi, we have finally decided to start our fast here at Ladakh Bhavan New Delhi where I was virtually detained for the last 4 days,” Wangchuk posted on social media.
He also stated that there are elderly men and women who walked with him all the way to Delhi from Ladakh for a period of 32 days - roughly 1,000 km.
The Delhi Police, in a letter to the coordinator of the Leh Apex Body (LAB) representing the protesters, said that the request was received at a “very short notice”, and that no specific time frame was mentioned about the gathering.
“The guidelines require that applications for holding any demonstration at the Jantar Mantar must be sent at least 10 days before the planned event. It also requires the duration of the planned event to be between 10 am and 5 pm,” Additional DCP Anyesh Roy’s letter read. It further stated that LAB’s application mentioned that this “hunger strike” was planned when the expected meeting with the top leadership had not materialised.
“It is quite clear that this proposed anshan will be a prolonged one. There is no provision under the extant laws, rules and guidelines under which permission can be granted for any kind of anshan’, let alone an open-ended, without timeframe, mass event, as is discernible from the application,” it read.