BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Reacting to the Congress’s charge that the arrest of Ladakhi climate activist Sonam Wangchuk is “unacceptable”, the BJP hit back and said that the Congress is being hypocritical. BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad asked why was Rahul Gandhi quiet during the arrest of a cartoonist in West Bengal and a comedian in Tamil Nadu.
At a press conference he held to question the Congress over the land deal scam, Prasad said that while he will need to “check facts”, he questioned the “silence” of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi who said the arrest was “unacceptable”.
“I don’t know the facts; I will have to check them. If Rahul Gandhi has a comment to make, why did he maintain a conspicuous silence when cartoonists are lifted in Kolkata and a satirist is jailed in Tamil Nadu,” Shankar asked. “This is simply hypocrisy in extreme.”
Wangchuk, along with 100 other activists, who had been carrying out a march from Ladakh to Delhi, were detained at the Delhi border at Singhu.
They have been demanding that Ladakh be included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Delhi Police booked them for violating prohibitory orders and took them to different police stations. Sajjad Kargili, a fellow activist, said that he and some others were detained at an Arya Samaj at Narela.
Gandhi had posted on X that Wangchuk and hundreds of Ladakhis were marching “peacefully” for “environmental and constitutional rights” and their detention was “unacceptable”.
“Why are elderly citizens being detained at Delhi’s border for standing up for Ladakh’s future? Modi ji, like with the farmers, this ‘Chakravyuh’ will be broken, and so will your arrogance. You will have to listen to Ladakh’s voice,” Gandhi had posted.