As Sonam Wangchuk has become, to a large extent, the face of the ongoing protest at Jantar Mantar, with his hunger strike, many narratives about him being an instigator of violence as well as being a foreign-funded agent have flooded social media and even the mainstream media. We shed light on some of these allegations to help you decide whether Sonam Wangchuk is, as the government claims, really just a foreign agent, or if he is just another victim of wrongful accusation for going against the establishment. Currently, Sonam Wangchuk has ended his 26-day fast, as Parliament officials have assured that the issue will be discussed on the floor of the Parliament.
Sonam Wangchuk is well known for his work on creating artificial glaciers to store water for use during seasons when water availability is scarce. He draws criticism even for this, though, as people claim he stole the idea from his colleague, Chewang Norphel, but Wangchuk himself doesn’t claim the idea as his own; rather, he is said to have improved upon the original idea by reducing the surface area of the ice glaciers, incorporating a conical shape similar to the Buddhist stupas(hence the name Ice Stupas) to ensure it says cold for longer periods of time.
But I guess when we want to discredit a man who stands with our students, we will make stuff out of nothing to attack his character.
Wangchuk was also heavily scrutinized for his role in the Ladakh protests demanding separate statehood, inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, a local public service commission, and greater political representation for the region. Mind you, the BJP promised to include Ladakh in the Sixth Schedule in its 2019 manifesto and to grant it greater autonomy, but the whole thing got lost in the web of bureaucracy. Wangchuk was detained under the NSA for the violence that broke out in September, 2025, where he was accused of giving a speech to incite violence. These claims come from a 15-second clip taken out of context from his 30-minute-long speech, and were posted by the BJP’s social media head. It is noteworthy that he was released from detention three days prior to a Supreme Court hearing of the petition challenging his imprisonment.
Sonam was also heavily accused of inciting violence at the Ladakh protests, but all the videos supporting these claims were just short snippets that left out crucial context. Even when violence did break out, Sonam made an appeal to the youth, stating, “I request the youth of Ladakh to stop the violence forthwith, as it only causes harm to our cause and further deteriorates the situation. We do not want instability in Ladakh and the country.
Sonam was said to be visiting Pakistan with ulterior motives. But he was invited by the UN to speak about climate change at a conference attended by delegates from many South Asian countries, including India. He talked about his ice stupas and even praised Narendra Modi and the Indian Government for their initiatives to combat climate change.
He is also being called a Chinese agent; these allegations stem from a video where Sonam Wangchuk was allegedly saying that the people of Ladakh will show China the way if they ever choose to invade India. This was just a cleverly edited clip from a video where he was actually quoting a comedian whose entire statement was
‘When China invades, the Ladakhis stop them with their lives. But if the Indian government doesn’t do anything for us, then the next time they (China) arrive, we will not stop them; we will show them the way. Why should we give up our lives when there is no protection for us?’ The comedian himself was under police scrutiny for his statement, and for that, Sonam says, “don’t kill the messenger, solve the problem. They are only expressing their frustration. You should look into how to solve their problems.
It is also noteworthy that Sonam organized the Pashmina march, whose and one of its agenda items was to highlight the Chinese occupation of Indian territory. Section 144 was imposed, and the march was called off, but Sonam assured the people that the protest had achieved its goal by drawing attention to the issue. Sonam was also a vocal advocate for boycotting the purchase and consumption of Chinese products in India. You can find him talking about this on his YT channel.
Lastly, Wangchuk’s institute had its foreign funding license canceled by the Indian government after it was allegedly using the funds to study national sovereignty, in violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) alleged that SECMOL (Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh) was receiving various fund transfers from foreign sources in violation of FCRA guidelines. It also alleged that poor recordkeeping and misuse of funds led to the cancellation of its FCRA license. This is what Sonam had to say to a reporter about the whole fiasco, “A day later (after Leh protests), the Home Ministry of India issued a press release naming Sonam Wangchuk in it and blaming him… I had received a notice about a CBI inquiry stating that your organization received foreign funding even when it did not have an FCRA. We did not get FCRA because we don’t want funds from abroad. The United Nations team wanted to take our Passive Solar Heated Building to Afghanistan, and for this, they gave us a fee. We also got fees with tax from Swiss and Italy organisations for supplying knowledge to them about our artificial glaciers…We are getting an I-T summons. In the series of witch hunting, yesterday’s events were the last, and all blame was put on Sonam Wangchuk.”
Links to all the sources:
https://x.com/Wangchuk66/status/1767550280990912565(Tweet by Sonam taken out of context)
The Journal Club 
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