Expressing concerns about his deteriorating health, he said: “This is a man who could have chosen a life of comfort and recognition. Instead, the recipient of a Ramon Magsaysay Award, an honour equivalent to the Nobel Prize, is putting his own life at risk for the future of our children, the young, and this country. He sits for those dead students murdered by a broken, corrupt education system.”

Stating that Wangchuk is sacrificing his body and maybe his life for a greater cause, Das rued: “It makes me think what does it say about US that a son of India, who brought us such great honour before the world, has to starve himself to death simply to be heard by his own government?”

Asserting that he does not conform to this “idea” of India, Das said: “Somewhere along the way, we stopped feeling. We began to accept silence when there should have been outrage, indifference where there should have been compassion. We have become spectators to suffering. We have convinced ourselves that someone ELSE will speak, someone ELSE will act.

Das apologised for failing a man like Wngchuk. “We are failing you by allowing a nation to reach a point where a man of your integrity and stature must gamble with his own life just to make those in power LISTEN. We are failing you because we normalised arrogance over empathy. We normalised power over compassion. And we normalised indifference over conscience,” he said.

Mentioning about CJP’s scheduled march to Parliament in July 20, Das said, “July 20 is our last attempt to save you (Wangchuk)”.