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One on Hunger Strike, One on Feast: The Political Anatomy of a Minister’s Meal

How must Dharmendra Pradhan feel? Especially when he sits down to eat, how does it sit with him that at Jantar Mantar, Sonam Wangchuk and students of the AISA collective have not eaten for eighteen days, their health deteriorating with each passing hour, all for the singular demand of his resignation? Does the thought not torment him – that because of him, some have renounced food, while he continues, unperturbed, with breakfast, lunch, and dinner? There is no news of Dharmendra Pradhan having given up food or drink. But my imagination is restless. It wants to know: if Sonam Wangchuk is on hunger strike over him, is Dharmendra Pradhan, in turn, only on a food strike? Our thumbnail thus: one on anshan (hunger strike), one on bhojan (feast).

The Silence of the Plate

I have no personal knowledge of what Dharmendra Pradhan likes to eat, how much he eats, or whether these days his heart is even in his meals. Does he eat his fill listening to news of Sonam Wangchuk’s fast, or does he nowadays leave half his plate untouched? Through the photographs he himself has put out, we attempt to understand the relationship between a politician’s food and his politics. For a leader, eating with whom becomes a statement when elections are near. But when others give up food and water demanding his resignation, what then is his relationship with food? Can he still publicly perform his meals?

The Politics of Eating in Public

A two-year-old video from Dharmendra Pradhan’s Facebook shows him being served pakhala, a traditional Odia dish. The old video sparks a question: Is he eating like this these days? Someone is on hunger strike in his name, and does he still feel like eating? This may not be a journalist’s question, but a writer’s imagination can travel to Dharmendra Pradhan’s dining table. In another image from 2023, Pradhan eats at the home of a Dalit BJP leader, Ajay Tandi, in Sambalpur. Another from Kolkata shows him at the house of party worker Shankar. Politicians must circulate such photos because eating at a worker’s home, especially a Dalit household, sends a favorable political message. In 2023, Pradhan repeatedly dined at Dalit workers’ homes in Kolkata and posted the pictures on Twitter. Leaders always share images of themselves eating with the marginalized. But private dinners with industrialists? Hardly any photos. At community feasts, they are seen serving others, not eating. Leaders are very cautious: if they are eating at someone’s wedding or party, the video must not leak, or it will go viral.

When Protesters Starve, the Minister Tweets

On 14 July, the direction of debate at Jantar Mantar was suddenly changed. Voices began targeting Rahul Gandhi, asking why he had not come to the protest. The question should have been directed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. A question was raised: during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi did not troll anyone by asking why they were not walking with him. Many could not muster the courage to join, and those who did acted as if they had performed an act of great bravery. Abhijeet Deepke, founder of the Kaukroj Party, who himself faces questions about why he is not on hunger strike, wrote that such questions are meaningless – why didn’t the Leader of Opposition come to support? Why is every CJP leader not fasting? The real question is: why is the Prime Minister not speaking? Why hasn’t the Education Minister answered yet? Deepke noted that these questions need answers, not diversionary issues that shield those in power from accountability.

If Dharmendra Pradhan disappears from the public eye on the resignation issue, there are many ways to keep him in circulation. One is precisely what we are doing: reconstructing his public presence through his own photos. But browse his Twitter handle and you will never feel he is absent. He posts daily, writes newspaper articles. By ‘absent’ I only mean absent from the issue of his resignation; otherwise, he is very much visible. On 14 July, the very day Sonam Wangchuk’s health was worsening at Jantar Mantar, Dharmendra Pradhan was tweeting birthday greetings to BJP MLA Ashok Mohanty in Odisha. Another BJP MLA, Bhadev Hansda, also had his birthday that day – Pradhan wished him too. Today, 15 July, he is wishing Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. He is also tweeting verses from the Gita on the importance of the guru. On Twitter, Pradhan appears omnipresent.

The Conscience That Forgot Gopabandhu Das

If there were a campaign to call Dharmendra Pradhan, instead of Rahul Gandhi, to Jantar Mantar, perhaps it might meet with success. I have no solid reason to say so, but consider this: when Dharmendra Pradhan can write an article in an Odia newspaper praising Congress stalwart and Gandhian freedom fighter Gopabandhu Das, should we not expect that he might go to the protest against him, and by meeting Sonam Wangchuk, end the fast? I am speaking of hope. Pradhan tweeted the article published in Prameya. On Gopabandhu Das’s 150th birth anniversary, he called him the pride of Odisha, discussed his role in the non-cooperation movement, and his relationship with the Congress and Mahatma Gandhi. Pradhan wrote that despite being born in a Brahmin family, Gopabandhu actively participated in anti-caste politics. When people were divided by caste lineage, Gopabandhu spoke of uniting everyone. When he saw someone ill, someone in pain, their pain became his own. The same Dharmendra Pradhan who remembers this quality – does he see the suffering of the students and Sonam Wangchuk at Jantar Mantar? How is it possible that on the very day he writes an article extolling a Gandhian leader’s virtues, he cannot have a dialogue with those sitting on a Gandhian hunger strike? He does not speak to them, nor does he feel their pain like Gopabandhu Das would. Going to Jantar Mantar and resigning is one thing; meeting Sonam Wangchuk is hardly difficult.

But it is no small thing that Pradhan writes about a Congress leader’s contribution in an Odia daily. Gopabandhu Das’s life is remarkable, and everyone should know about him. He became the first president of the Utkal Pradesh Congress Committee in 1920, served for eight years, and played a huge role in the formation of Odisha. At a time when the BJP is forcibly breaking other parties and merging them into itself, Dharmendra Pradhan is recalling the first Congress state president and his contributions. We must hope that inspired by Dharmendra Pradhan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi might someday write a long article on Jawaharlal Nehru’s contributions.

Media’s Missing Menu

If this were a UPA government under Manmohan Singh, the media would have been reporting live from outside the minister’s home. The godi media could at least go to Dharmendra Pradhan’s house and ask: “Alright, you won’t resign, but what are you eating these days? Sonam Wangchuk is on hunger strike for eighteen days demanding your resignation – do you feel like eating anything, or are you also restless?” The godi media regularly reports on what is being served at summit meetings or presidential banquets, and which dish has mysteriously disappeared. So, based on sources or simply by going there, could they not report from Pradhan’s residence what he had for breakfast on the eighteenth day of Wangchuk’s fast, what he plans for lunch, and whether he will have jhaal muri in the evening? Do you get my point?

A Table of Political Calculations

Does Dharmendra Pradhan remember the March 2023 meeting with Sonam Wangchuk, which he praised at the time? Is he troubled now that the very person he was happy to meet is on hunger strike demanding his resignation? Could he simply say: if resigning saves Sonam Wangchuk’s life, I will do it? In politics, nothing is that simple. We are only looking through a literary lens, imagining. When the E20 fuel controversy arose, Nitin Gadkari came forward to defend it, saying he had not received a single complaint from across the country; in fact, those who claimed E20 damaged their engines were seen holding their ears in apology. Why cannot Dharmendra Pradhan do the same? He too could say: yes, paper leaks and exam malpractices happen in India, but not a single parent from the whole country has complained to me. That means my work is fine, so why resign? Simple.

Dharmendra Pradhan is no ordinary leader. He became an MP from Deogarh, Odisha, later reached Rajya Sabha from Bihar, then won from Sambalpur, and has been a legislator or parliamentarian continuously for 26 years. For 13 of these years, he has been a Union Minister. Surely, his eyes have been on the Chief Minister’s post in Odisha. With Mohan Charan Majhi becoming CM, that door is shut for now. If removed from the central cabinet, where would he go? BJP already has a new president in Nitin Naveen; from Odisha, there are three Union Ministers – Jual Oram, Ashwini Vaishnav, and Dharmendra Pradhan. Vaishnav is also influential; Pradhan’s resignation might increase Vaishnav’s clout. Would that benefit Dharmendra Pradhan? I have no inside information on their personal or political relationship; I am only discussing political possibilities. Perhaps they are great friends, ready to give up seats for each other. Pradhan’s resignation may not happen. It hasn’t in so many days. In politics, one cannot say it won’t ever happen. It will depend on how much the RSS backs Dharmendra Pradhan, and how his rivals in Odisha politics exploit this moment.

The Grim Reality of Education Under This Government

To understand the state of education, you don’t need to work hard. Walk three to five kilometers in your own city, enter any college, and you will see everything. Then, look up the names of Modi government ministers whose children study abroad. Did they do wrong? Absolutely right. Their children have every right to save their careers from being destroyed by studying in Indian colleges. You too should send your children abroad. For the next twenty years, nothing will change. This is still the era of religion-based politics; the era of education politics has not arrived, and it will not.

Criticisms

• The Education Minister is faulted for his conspicuous silence while protesters fast for his resignation.
• The government is criticized for its complete indifference to the health and demands of fasting students and activists.
• The Prime Minister is condemned for his failure to address the protest or even acknowledge the hunger strike.
• The media, especially the so-called godi media, is accused of complicity by refusing to report from the minister’s home or question his dietary routine during the crisis.
• The ruling party is blamed for diverting attention from the Education Minister’s accountability by shifting focus to the opposition leader’s absence.
• The systemic decay in education, rampant paper leaks, and exam malpractices are laid at the feet of a government that prioritizes ideological politics over institutional integrity.
• A political culture is indicted in which ministers perform eating with Dalits for electoral imagery but refuse to face those starving for an answer.
• The Education Minister’s use of a Gandhian leader’s legacy in his writings is exposed as hollow posturing, given his refusal to engage with a Gandhian protest outside his own ministry.
• The central leadership is criticized for treating the resignation demand as a non-issue while millions of students and parents suffer anxiety and injustice.

This is the transcript of a commentary by Ravish Kumar, reimagined as a blog post. All observations and criticisms emerge from the original monologue.