CPI(ML) Liberation-affiliated AISA (All India Students Association) member Neha, Ameen Amitoj, and Manish Kumar, ending their hunger strike at Jantar Mantar on Monday (July 20, 2026). Photo credit: X@neha_aisa
After a 23-day hunger strike at Jantar Mantar, three protesting students from the All India Students’ Association (AISA) — Neha, Ameen Amitoj, and Manish Kumar — ended their fast, following appeals from parliamentarians, civil society members, and academics. They said that they will opt for “other forms of struggle”. They began their hunger strike on the same day as Sonam Wangchuk, during the protest called by the Cockroach Janta Party, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Those who appealed to the three students to end their fast included parliamentarians Manoj Jha, Rajaram Singh, Amra Ram along with Yogendra Yadav, advocate Prashant Bhushan, professor Atul Sood, and actors Prakash Raj and Shabana Azmi.Follow CJP protest in Delhi LIVE updates“The amount of joy that we got seeing crowds of lakhs of students and youth was more than the joy of breaking the hunger strike. It is worth noting such a strong mobilisation on the issue of education,” said Ms. Neha, a PhD scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University and AISA national president, after she broke her fast. She criticised the government’s decision to lathi-charge the protesters on Monday (July 20, 2026), adding that the government and police are not “able to understand that this fight is for their children, who will one day want to become doctors and engineers.”“Their lathi charge is not just on us, it is on the future of their own children... I want to appeal to everyone to stand with the movement, as it moves into another stage of the fight, after the end of the hunger strike,” she added. AISA said in a statement, “The student leaders have fought valiantly, all of them losing more than 12% of their body mass, along with persevering dangerously low blood sugar levels and catastrophic impacts on their organs.” The doctors volunteering have made individual meal plans for them to ensure that they do not suffer from refeeding syndrome. N. Sai Balaji, former JNUSU president from AISA, said they will take up a month-long campaign parallel to the Parliament Session echoing their demands made at Jantar Mantar. He said that as of Monday (July 20) evening, they were “assessing to see how many were injured, how many need treatment”, and checking if protesters were safe. Published - July 20, 2026 09:39 pm IST
