When news emerged that Sonam Wangchuk, had allegedly been taken forcibly to hospital after his prolonged hunger strike, I found myself reflecting on a strange contradiction in our country,
You may go hungry because you have no job. You may stand in ration queues. You may wonder whether your next meal will come from your salary or your neighbour's kindness. But if you deliberately decide not to eat, then suddenly the entire machinery of the State discovers you need nutrition immediately.
There is something wonderfully ironic about it all.
Millions struggle silently with empty stomachs, and nobody rushes towards them carrying glucose bottles. But begin a hunger strike with television cameras nearby and ambulances appear, police arrive, doctors assemble and somebody urgently announces that your life must be saved.
What a comforting thought.
We may argue endlessly about unemployment, inflation, corruption, collapsing institutions, shrinking freedoms, intimidated journalists or weakened opposition voices. Those discussions can wait. But heaven forbid someone should become the first person to die because he refused to eat while protesting. That headline would travel far beyond our borders, and headlines are far more dangerous than hunger.
History has always had an uncomfortable habit of embarrassing governments.
A man quietly starving in protest has often frightened rulers far more than thousands shouting slogans. A fasting protest asks awkward questions. It forces everyone to choose whether they will look away or keep looking. That is why the faster eventually becomes more inconvenient than the issue he is protesting.
So comes the rescue.
The police gently, or not so gently, step in. The hospital bed replaces the pavement. The saline drip replaces the empty plate. The government can now proudly announce that it values human life.
One almost wishes this extraordinary compassion would become a national policy.
Imagine if every hungry child received the same urgency. Imagine if every struggling farmer were treated like a national emergency. Imagine if every threatened journalist received the same protection. Imagine if every whistleblower exposing corruption were guarded with the same determination. Imagine if every citizen seeking justice found the State moving as swiftly as it does when an embarrassing protest begins attracting international attention.
That would truly be a miracle worth celebrating.
No civilised nation wants a protester to die on its streets. On that principle, most of us would agree. Human life matters. But if saving a life becomes more important than hearing the reason that life is being risked, then the hospital becomes only another waiting room where inconvenient questions are quietly placed on oxygen.
Perhaps the greatest satire of all is this.
In a nation where so many people fight every day for food, freedom, fairness and a voice, the one man who voluntarily refuses food receives the fastest government service of all.
This government does not merely speak. It arrives carrying a stretcher..!
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