Mumbai, July 13 (IANS) The Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) on Monday launched a blistering attack on the Central government over its “callous silence” regarding the rapidly deteriorating health of innovator and activist Sonam Wangchuk.

In a scathing editorial in the party’s mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, the Thackeray faction demanded the immediate resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the massive NEET-UG examination scam and called for a nationwide youth mobilisation at Jantar Mantar. Wangchuk, affectionately called the “son of the Himalayas”, has been on an indefinite hunger strike at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for 15 days, lending his moral weight to the ongoing student agitation.

The editorial painted a grim picture of the activist’s physical condition, warning that the government’s inaction is putting a national treasure at risk. ‘’His body is emaciated, his breathing is laboured, and his voice has grown faint. Yet, PM Modi continues to shield his inactive, incompetent Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. Sonam Wangchuk’s life must be protected at all costs.”

The editorial emphasised that Wangchuk’s agitation is entirely noble, driven strictly by the welfare of India’s student community rather than personal greed or political ambition. It aggressively questioned why the Prime Minister has failed to engage in basic democratic dialogue, noting that while Wangchuk starved, PM Modi was busy touring four to five countries and collecting foreign honours.

At the heart of Wangchuk’s fast and the Uddhav camp’s fury is the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) crisis, which has seen repeated question paper leaks and arbitrary cancellations, throwing the futures of millions of medical aspirants into absolute chaos, said the editorial.

The Thackeray camp alleged that competitive exams have been reduced to a “horse-trading market” where question papers are openly auctioned for millions of rupees. Investigations into the paper leaks have exposed close ties between the accused orchestrators and the “BJP family”. The editorial slammed the government’s “bizarre and extreme” proposal to put the military and the Air Force in charge of securing future exam papers instead of fixing internal institutional rot.

According to the editorial, Pradhan, by appointing corrupt Vice-Chancellors to prestigious universities, “effectively destroyed” India’s higher education framework. “Dharmendra Pradhan is no titan of education,” the editorial remarked sharply. “He completely lacks the visionary leadership of his illustrious predecessors like Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, P.V. Narasimha Rao, or Arjun Singh,” it remarked.

Drawing a sharp historical parallel, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena called out the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its deep ideological double standards.

It recalled the 2011 anti-corruption movement when veteran activist Anna Hazare went on an 11-day hunger strike at Ramlila Maidan for the Jan Lokpal Bill under the Dr Manmohan Singh-led UPA government. At the time, the Manmohan Singh administration proactively sent multiple Union Ministers and emissaries to engage with Hazare, sustain open communication, and iron out solutions.

“Back then, the BJP actively supported Anna’s movement, loudly labelling it as ‘public outrage’ and the ‘voice of the people’. Today, sitting comfortably in power, they dismiss Wangchuk’s genuine, student-led protest as a ‘political conspiracy’. This is nothing but pure hypocrisy,” stated the editorial.

Reminding the ruling dispensation of its political roots, the editorial pointed out that it was the unified force of India’s youth that originally propelled Narendra Modi to power 12 years ago, sparked by his strategic campaign address to students at Ferguson College and his highly publicised Pariksha Pe Charcha programmes.

“Today, the integrity of those very exams has been thoroughly decimated, yet the Prime Minister refuses to even discuss it,” the editorial noted.

The Thackeray camp concluded with an urgent appeal to the nation’s conscience, invoking the spirit of veteran activists and urging the public to transform Wangchuk’s solitary fast into a mass movement. “If Anna Hazare’s spirit is alive, he must stand by Wangchuk in Delhi. The opposition must mobilise at Jantar Mantar, and the youth of this nation — for whose very future Wangchuk is risking his life — must awaken from their slumber. Chanting ‘Jai Hind’, young citizens need to hit the streets, break their silence, and hold this government accountable. Let Sonam Wangchuk’s fight become India’s collective struggle!”

–IANS

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