Achi news desk-
Four years have passed, but not even four demands have been met; In-depth analysis.
Educationist and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk and the Leh Apex Body (LAB) decided to cancel the border march on Sunday as the Ladakh Lt Governor’s administration stepped up measures to prevent the proposed event from going ahead.
Also read: ‘Congress will protect the Constitution’: Alka Lamba
On March 26, 2024, he completed his 21-day hunger strike, sleeping in the open despite temperatures being -10 Celsius.
But the ongoing peaceful protest will continue.
As they explained, the purpose of the ‘Pashmina March’ was to highlight the plight of the nomadic Changpa tribes, who are losing thousands of square kilometers of their land. "Due to Chinese invasions in the north and our corporations in the south."
Within 24 hours, the LG administration imposed Section 144 of the CRPC in Leh to ban any assembly without permission, throttled internet speed and rounded up Mr Wangchuk’s supporters.
He is credited with helping to drive the sharp rise of
Grade 10 graduates from 5% to 75% in the region and found the Himalaya Institute for Alternative Adak.
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Why are people in Ladakh protesting?
Ladakh is becoming the epicenter of the unfolding ecological disaster, where rising temperatures, rapid melting of glaciers, dying spring water, increasing rainfall, falling snowfall and water scarcity have become daily experiences. Unregulated tourism in this sensitive area is another serious threat. After easing the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021, four lakh tourists visited Ladakh during the season. Although the population of Ladakh itself is about three lakes, the ecology of the region does not have the capacity to manage this unregulated tourism. There has been a loss of youth job opportunities since 2019, resulting in Dhaka witnessing one of the highest increases in unemployment in India between 2021-22 and 2022-23. Unemployment in Ladakh increased by 16 percent between these years, with 26.5 percent of graduates unemployed.
After the repeal of Article 370 in August 2019, people of Ladakh realized that the creation of UT left them without a legislature, depriving them of autonomy in governance. For many Ladakhis, the main concern is not the nature of the projects presented by the Center but the fact that they have been excluded from the decision-making process. Under the current system, there is only one Member of Parliament from Ladakh to represent local interests, as opposed to the other four members in the Legislative Assembly. Ladakh was once in the (now defunct) Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. A deeper panic has set in at the dizzying pace of ‘development’ projects announced in the past two years. The Center cleared seven hydroelectric projects in the Indus Basin and its tributaries, and at the same time invited the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to build a geothermal energy power plant in the Phuga Valley and a hydrogen unit by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). This raised concerns among the locals about large-scale clearing of forest lands. In August 2010 several parts of Ladakh, especially La, were affected by floods. Almost 255 people died in the flood. In August 2014, a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) caused damage when the glacial lake breached, resulting in damaged houses and bridges in Kfar Gia. More recently, in August 2021, a GLOF near the village of Rumbak also damaged roads and bridges. A study published in 2020 estimated that Ladakh has 192 glacial lakes. A number of research papers also state that due to the increase in temperature caused by global warming, the number and size of the glacial lakes in the Himalayas are increasing, and the glaciers are shrinking.
Repeal of Article 370
On August 5, 2019, when the Union government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcated it into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh – parts of Ladakh celebrated the move, as people in the Buddhist-majority La district danced in the streets. On the other hand, the people in Kargil took to the streets to protest against the repeal of Articles 370 and 35A, prompting the government to impose restrictions. The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils in both La and Kargil districts – established to administer the area – have no legislative powers. Earlier, in the former state of Jammu and Kashmir, the councils would enact by-laws, which after being passed by the state assembly, would become laws.
Requirements of Ladakh
While they demand full statehood for Ladakh, they also demand constitutional safeguards under the Sixth Schedule and an increase in the number of seats in the Ladakh Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. "Strengthen representation and participation" in India’s democratic process. Finally, they also demand early recruitment to end the employment crisis that has plagued the region for some time.
What is the sixth schedule, and why does the Ministry of Defense require it?
After the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 and the subsequent enactment of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019, Ladakh was recognized as a separate Union Territory "without the legislature." Since partition, organizations such as Apex Body of La (ABL) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) have demanded that Ladakh be included under the Sixth Plan. The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution provides for autonomous self-administration of tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram in order to safeguard their rights. The Constitution provides this special provision under Articles 244(2) and 275(1). Inclusion in this framework will allow Ladakh to create autonomous districts and regional councils – elected bodies empowered to administer tribal areas. This would include the power to enact laws on issues such as forest management, agriculture, village and town management, inheritance, marriage, divorce and social customs. The tribal population in Ladakh is 97 percent. The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) held meetings and discussed the issue of Ladakh Knesset under the Sixth Schedule. The committee submitted its recommendations to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda. However, the recommendation has not been implemented so far. Several rounds of talks have been held between Ladakh and the central government, but no conclusion has yet been reached. Recently, after meeting on March 4, while Home Minister Amit Shah assured the delegation that the government would look into meeting Ladakh’s demands, he said “categorically” that the Center could neither grant statehood to UT nor ensure its inclusion under the Sixth Plan. Instead, the government is considering giving Ladakh special provisions under Article 371 of the Constitution. However, the discussion left two bodies unsatisfied.
(The writer is pursuing his studies in Political Science at B. Borooah College, Guwahati University. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author).
