Unacceptable treatment

It is ironic that one of the most Gandhian public personalities of the country found it extremely difficult to visit Raj Ghat in New Delhi on Gandhi Jayanti. Climate activist and champion of the rights of the people of Ladakh Sonam Wangchuk and several protesters who were on a month-long “Chalo Dilli” march were detained at the Delhi border by Delhi Police. They went on a hunger strike in police stations.

Wangchuk and his supporters have made demands about the status and development needs of Ladakh, which was carved out from Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory in 2019. The ostensible reason for blocking the protesters’ entry into Raj Ghat was a six-day ban on protests in the NCR region. The grounds – “heavy movement of VVIPs as well as the J&K and Haryana Assembly elections -- are unconvincing. The real aim seemed to be to keep the Ladakh protest away from the national focus. The police later released Wangchuk, and he visited Rajghat. 

The march to the capital by the Leh Apex Body (ABL) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) under the leadership of Wangchuk began a month ago in Ladakh. The protesters’ demands include statehood for Ladakh, extension of the Constitution’s Sixth Schedule, establishment of an early recruitment process, creation of a public service commission for Ladakh, and separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil districts.

Ladakh’s people had started the agitation much earlier, and Wangchuk had staged a hunger strike even before the Lok Sabha elections to get the demands accepted. He and other agitators had pointed out that the protections under the Sixth Schedule for Ladakh were a poll promise of the BJP in the 2019 general elections. Earlier this year, the Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance had held talks with the Union Home Ministry but without much success. Wangchuk and other activists staged their fast in Leh for 21 days after that. 

It has now become the standard practice for the central government to stop protesters at the gates of Delhi and deny them entry to the nation’s capital. Farmers who protested against the government’s farm laws were also given the same treatment and they stayed on the outskirts of Delhi for more than a year.

It is unfortunate that people from far-flung regions of the country who go to the national capital to present their demands and grievances do not get a hearing or even space to articulate their demands and protests. Wangchuk and other protesters represent the voice of the people of Ladakh. The BJP, which had won the Ladakh seat in 2014 and 2019, lost it this year. The government should open talks with the people of Ladakh and concede their fair demands.