In his first, most detailed interview, activist Sonam Wangchuk details his time in prison, media trial & NSA charge.<\/p>\n
Sonam Wangchuk and Gitanjali Angmo discuss Wangchuk’s detention under the NSA post-Ladakh violence, the lack of legal recourse, media narratives, and the government’s revocation. They reflect on democracy, systemic flaws, and their personal resolve. Can trust in Indian institutions survive such ordeals?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like being kidnapped by a gang,\u201d said environmentalist and educationist Sonam Wangchuk, recalling the first few hours after his arrest in September 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them I needed to call my lawyer and my wife. And they said, \u2018Yes, this is your right. We\u2019ll ensure that you get it,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut once inside the jail, they said, \u2018Oh! Under your article or the Act (National Security Act), no phone calls are allowed at all.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
His wife and educator Dr Gitanjali J Angmo, who had spoken to The Quint a few months earlier while Wangchuk was still incarcerated, recalled being subjected to what she described as similar \u201ctrickery\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they did the same to me. They kept telling me that once he landed in Jodhpur, he would speak to me at 7.30, 8.30, 9.30. I spent that entire night waiting for his call,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It has now been four months since the Government of India exercised its powers to revoke Wangchuk\u2019s incarceration under the NSA following violence in Ladakh that claimed four lives during Wangchuk\u2019s peaceful demonstration.<\/p>\n
Asked about being \u201cpardoned\u201d by the government, Wangchuk quipped: \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to say who pardoned whom.\u201d
\nBoth Wangchuk and Angmo said they were confident that the Supreme Court\u2019s verdict would ultimately be in their favour, describing the government\u2019s decision as a \u201cretreat by a losing government to save face\u201d.<\/p>\n
But while Wangchuk endured the realities of prison from within, Angmo says the ordeal outside was no less harrowing. Together, they describe it as a multi-pronged battle against the \u201ctop two\u201d in the country.<\/p>\n
In their most detailed interview since Wangchuk\u2019s release, the couple open up about the arrest, detention, legal battle, and the larger questions their experience raises about democracy, justice, and state power in India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In his first, most detailed interview, activist Sonam Wangchuk details his time in prison, media trial & NSA charge. Sonam Wangchuk and Gitanjali Angmo discuss Wangchuk’s detention under the NSA post-Ladakh violence, the lack of legal recourse, media narratives, and the government’s revocation. They reflect on democracy, systemic flaws, and their personal resolve. Can trust […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[20,21,19],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national","tag-gitanjali-angmo","tag-ladakh-violence","tag-sonam-wangchuk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachalheadlines.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachalheadlines.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachalheadlines.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachalheadlines.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachalheadlines.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/arunachalheadlines.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145,"href":"https:\/\/arunachalheadlines.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachalheadlines.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachalheadlines.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachalheadlines.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}