Just a day before Parliament’s monsoon session begins, the Opposition found something to agree on. For months, the bloc had been falling apart. Splits. Defections. Confusion over strategy. But on Saturday, opposition parties came together to slam the BJP government for shifting activist Sonam Wangchuk from his protest site at Jantar Mantar to Safdarjung Hospital.
The message was simple. This fight is moving straight into the House when it reopens Monday.
What started the protest
Wangchuk began his hunger strike on June 28. He was protesting alongside the Cockroach Janta Party. Their demands were direct. They want major changes to how India’s exam system works. They also want Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to step down, blaming him for repeated paper leaks that have plagued exams for months.
Now that Wangchuk has been moved to a hospital, opposition leaders see an opening. They plan to raise his health and the government’s handling of the protest as soon as session begins.
Timing here is everything. Back in April, the Opposition actually pulled off something big. They stood together and defeated a Constitution amendment bill that would have increased the number of parliamentary seats. It felt like a rare win.
But the unity didn’t last.
Since then, something remarkable happened. Thirty-seven MPs from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, all from four anti-BJP parties, crossed over to the ruling side. Read that again. Thirty-seven lawmakers switched sides. It’s the biggest wave of defections from opposition to treasury benches since India’s anti-defection law came into force back in 1985.
The bleeding hasn’t stopped either. Just this week, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Koel Mallick resigned from her seat.
Adding to the mess, the DMK hasn’t taken a clear position lately. Three months ago, they were firmly against key government bills. Now their stance looks shaky, and nobody seems sure where they actually stand.
What’s coming next
There’s real reason for the Opposition to worry. The government appears ready to reintroduce two major pieces of legislation. One is the Constitution’s 131st Amendment Bill, meant to bring the Women’s Reservation law into effect. The other is the Delimitation Bill.
Both were strongly opposed earlier this year. But given how fractured the Opposition has become, nobody can say for sure how united their resistance will actually be this time.
This is where the Wangchuk issue comes in. Opposition leaders are hoping it can serve as common ground, something all the fractured parties can rally behind before tackling bigger fights over the amendment and delimitation bills.
Will it hold?
Here’s the catch. Wangchuk himself is no longer at the protest site. He’s in the hospital. The person now leading things on the ground is Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party.
That raises a real question. Can a protest still generate enough political heat when the face of the movement isn’t physically there anymore? Can the Opposition actually sustain a coordinated campaign around this, or will it fizzle out the way so many other efforts have this year?