The TIME recently published an article naming Sonam Wangchuk, the engineer-activist currently detained by Indian authorities for his role in instigating violent protests in Leh, to its 2025 TIME100 Climate list, celebrating him as one of the “world’s most influential leaders driving business to real climate action.”

Just as the Indian government identified Sonam Wangchuk as a national security threat, slapping him with the National Security Act (NSA), a major American magazine anoints him a global climate hero. The celebration of an anarchist by TIME seems to indicate that Wangchuk is a Deep State puppet.

Wangchuk, currently detained under the National Security Act (NSA), is the face of protests in Ladakh that escalated from environmental concerns into violent demands for autonomy and separate statehood. The Indian government has presented substantial evidence that his so-called “climate fast” was a carefully orchestrated political campaign, designed to mobilize crowds under a virtuous guise while pushing a divisive separatist agenda. His arrest in September 2025 followed accusations that he was mobilizing crowds and delivering fiery speeches earlier seen as a direct challenge to India’s sovereignty.

Critics are now asking whose narrative we should believe. The TIME piece, which leans heavily on Wangchuk’s own storytelling, feels less like a neutral profile and more like a strategic PR rescue mission for a figure whose actions have been deemed unlawful by the Indian state. The timing is, to many, highly suspect, another case of a Western institution propping up someone who stands in opposition to the elected Indian government.

The TIME’s profile appears to be a strategic, one-sided rehabilitation effort. This is a public relations campaign for a man whose actions have been deemed a direct threat to India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The timing is particularly suspect. This international endorsement arrives just as the Indian judiciary is processing the state’s serious charges against him. It mirrors a familiar pattern where foreign entities attempt to legitimize individuals who actively oppose the policies of a democratically elected government, effectively placing external pressure on India’s internal legal and political processes.

Security officials have long warned that Wangchuk’s environmental work provides a perfect “halo effect,” shielding his political activities from scrutiny. The TIME accolade seems to exploit this very duality, celebrating the engineer to legitimize the agitator. This playbook is not new: create a global icon out of a local dissident, then use that platform to challenge the nation-state from the outside.

The glaring disconnect between his portrayal as a global climate saviour and his status as a detained individual facing serious national security charges raises a critical question: whose interests does this narrative truly serve? For many observers, the answer points not to genuine environmental advocacy, but to a deeper, more cynical game where Wangchuk is merely a pawn in a larger strategy to undermine India’s unity and stability.

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The post Deep State’s New Puppet? Anarchist Sonam Wangchuk Who Instigated Leh Violence Named As TIME’s Most Influential Person appeared first on The Commune.