Prateek Tanmay
4 min readMumbaiJul 20, 2026 10:17 PM IST
When Budhiraj Torane saw social media posts calling activist Sonam Wangchuk a “Chinese agent”, he decided he had to be in Delhi.
The final-year law student boarded a train from Mumbai on Sunday, travelling in the general compartment after failing to get a confirmed ticket, to join Monday’s ‘Chalo Sansad’ march. “Whatever is happening is simply not right. It is completely against the democratic rights of citizens to protest and demand answers from the government. I can’t just remain a spectator,” Torane told The Indian Express.
He is one of several young Mumbaikars who travelled overnight to the capital, some after difficult negotiations with worried parents, and one without telling his family at all. The protests began over alleged irregularities in the NEET examination but have since widened into a larger movement demanding accountability from the government. Wangchuk’s detention after his hunger strike on Saturday became the immediate trigger for many young people to head to Delhi.
Torane has no connection with NEET. Yet what happened to Wangchuk, he said, convinced him the movement had grown beyond a single examination. “It was disturbing to see what happened with Wangchuk sir. He wasn’t fasting because he had anything to do with NEET. He was demanding accountability from the government. Then I saw videos calling him a Chinese agent. That was the moment I decided to go to Delhi,” he said.
Torane said he could have joined demonstrations in Mumbai but wanted to witness what he believes is “a movement for reform” taking shape in the national capital. “I wanted to be there because this matters to a lot of young people like me,” he said.
Having attended the July 16 protest at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan, Torane said the movement resonated with many youngsters hurt by the Chief Justice of India’s remarks about unemployed youth. The stand taken by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which began as online satire before growing into a youth-led movement, gave voice to those feelings, he said.
For Kalyan resident Sumitra Kamble, the decision to travel to Delhi came after a battle at home. “My parents understand my frustration but were worried about my safety,” said Kamble, who has a postgraduate degree in management and is still looking for a job. “I kept assuring them I would stay away from places where things had turned violent.”
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Kamble said she connected with CJP because it gave expression to the frustration of unemployed youth. After attending the Azad Maidan protest alone, she met other supporters and decided to travel with them once Wangchuk was shifted from the protest site on Saturday.
Speaking over the phone from Delhi, Kamble broke down while describing the situation on the ground. “There was a lathi charge. People are injured but there is no medical support,” she said.
A 24-year-old social sector worker from Kurla, who requested anonymity, also travelled overnight to participate in Monday’s protest. “I didn’t tell my parents because they would have convinced me not to go,” he said. “Their concerns about my safety would probably have changed my mind.”
He is not directly affected by the NEET controversy, but said he understood the pressure of competitive examinations from his own engineering days. “I have cousins preparing for NEET. Irregularities like paper leaks undermine the entire examination system. When someone is demanding accountability from the government, I want to do my bit. I may not be able to organise a protest, but I can show up,” he said.
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