&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "‘Not handled by any outside power’: Sonam Wangchuk rejects foreign links to CJP protests")
Activist Sonam Wangchuk has opened up about the allegations of foreign links to the CJP protest movement. In a podcast with Prakhar Gupta, Wangchuk said people may have issues with the past political affiliation of the CJP moderators, but they were not being handled by “any outside power”.
“You might have issues with them eating burgers or their past jobs, but they are not being handled by any outside power,” he said. Wangchuk said that he looked at all the available social media data after authorities raised concern about most of the followers being outside India. He checked the data and found out that more than 94 per cent were from India.
“Yes, it was data. Our authorities, including the Lieutenant Governor, were saying that they have a huge following in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and the US that I didn't know about. So I went and looked at the analytics of their followers. It turned out that 94 per cent of their followers were from India, and only six per cent were from other countries.”
The host asked him jokingly, "Are you CIA? I don't know how else to respond, but this is what a CIA person would do, so sophisticated..."
Wangchuk responded that he is not, unless the CIA have figured out sophisticated ways that "even the person doesn't know until he is dead and 500 years have passed."
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Wangchuk was the prominent figure whose involvement in the Jantar Mantar protest over exam irregularities gave it extra mileage. He also went on an indefinite hunger strike, and it later led to the resignation of the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Responding to the allegations surrounding CJP founder Abhijit Dipke's education credentials and possible link to Pakistan, Bangladesh, or the US, Wangchuk said that he was not using “sophisticated research software”, he joined them based on his observations, his conversations with the protestors and his available information.
"A six per cent foreign following is not a high-risk following. If it were 30 per cent foreign and 70 per cent Indian, red lights would have blinked for me. But six per cent outside and 94 per cent inside, combined with what was visible on the ground, made me realise there was no such thing. Then I got on calls with them, asked questions, and didn't feel at all that they were working for any foreign power," said Wangchuk.
He said that he supports investigations into the university record of those who were leading protests if there are any doubts. But he does not believe that protestors were funded by anyone; they came of their own accord.
