‘People are readying themselves to give BJP a befitting reply through ballot’: Leh’s Congress leader Tsering Namgyal

Congress member and Leader of Opposition in Ladakh Hill Council (Leh) says the Centre is reneging on its promise to extend Sixth Schedule guarantees.

Ladakh’s citizens face despair as talks in New Delhi fail to secure Sixth Schedule guarantees for protecting cultural identity. | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement

With discussions in New Delhi yielding no results, Ladakhis are experiencing a mix of despair and anger. They believe that without the assurance of Sixth Schedule guarantees for Ladakh, their cultural identity and economic interests will be compromised. In an interview with Frontline, Tsering Namgyal, the Leader of the Opposition in the Ladakh Hill Council [Leh] from the Congress, recounts the dismissive treatment Ladakhi representatives received during talks with members of the high-powered Committee in New Delhi. Namgyal also discusses the necessity of intensifying the Ladakhi protest movement and outlines strategies to challenge the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha election in Ladakh.

What went wrong during the talks between Ladakhi civil society leaders and the government?

We had high hopes with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) when we were invited for the talks. There was a sense of optimism among the members of the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) that New Delhi would take concrete steps towards the realisation of key points, if not all, of our charter of demands. We had thought New Delhi would extend Sixth Schedule guarantees to Ladakh where 97 per cent of the population are tribals. Our leaders expected at least some breakthrough in the talks. So the failure of the talks is a major setback. There was an air of hostility during the talks, with members of the high-powered Committee of the MHA making snide remarks such as it was a mistake that Ladakh was given a Union Territory status, something people of Ladakh had fought so long for.

The Home Minister went to the extent of saying that even if Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested to him to consider the Sixth Schedule demand, he would not. This is a betrayal of sorts from New Delhi which had given the impression that it was willing to chalk out a mutually agreeable solution model. Our leaders reminded the Hon’ble Home Minister of their Sixth schedule promises made in the BJP manifesto during the 2019 general election and during the 2020 Leh Hill Council election.

When Thupstan Chhewang, the head of the Ladakh delegation, visited the NDS Memorial park on March 17 to extend solidarity to Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a fast for 21 days, he [Chhewang] said he was embarrassed to face the crowd, having earlier given assurances that a pro-Ladakhi resolution was on the cards. The Home Minister was categorical during the last meeting that he would not give Sixth Schedule guarantees to Ladakh, but may explore something under Article 371 of the Constitution. That, however, will not help our case for autonomy.

What was the controversy surrounding legal vetting of the Ladakhi charter of demands?

It was yet another delaying tactic of New Delhi. The high-powered Committee members asked us why we had not given written representations of all of our demands, but when we did, they kept buying time. The idea was to create an impression that they were sincere about the Ladakhi aspirations while dragging the meeting till the model code of conduct came into effect. But we saw through it. During the second round of the meeting on March 4, the LAB and KDA members went along with a Supreme Court lawyer, but the legal luminaries representing the government would hardly interact with us or share their own opinions.

They were like statues. Instead of deliberating on the Sixth Schedule and statehood, they were giving a power-point presentation on the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council Act. When our leaders intervened and asked them to talk about key agenda points they blatantly said they did not have anything to tell them.

This was shocking to the delegation. The Ladakhi representatives snapped that they had not come to New Delhi to understand the Autonomous Council Act but to understand the government’s stand on Sixth Schedule Guarantees. When they threatened to walk off, the Ministry of Home Affairs’ representatives scheduled a meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence where he dismissed the Sixth Schedule and statehood demands straight away.

What would be the Ladakhi opposition’s course of action now that the talks have ended in an impasse?

On March 20, the KDA held a major rally in Kargil and I think a 3-4 day hunger strike is also being planned in Kargil. Here, in Leh, a large number of people cutting across all age groups are turning up every day to sit on fast and to support Sonam Wangchuk’s ongoing fast-unto-death. I am sure people would not want him to continue his fast beyond the 21 days that he had declared, and once his fast is over, the Apex Body and the KDA members are likely to sit together to brainstorm future strategies to build pressure on New Delhi to act on our demands. But of course, the immediate focus is on assembling all anti-BJP forces and precluding the BJP from winning the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat, which it currently holds.

I can sense that people are readying themselves to give the BJP a befitting reply through the ballot. There is a groundswell of opinion against the BJP and this needs to be demonstrated. There is an increasing realisation in people that New Delhi is not going to buckle unless we build pressure on them by way of wide-scale strikes and shutdowns. The complete denial of District status for Zanskar and Nubra has also badly exposed the double standards of the BJP. Of course, our approach will rely on Gandhian non-violent ideology and Ladakhis are by and large peace-loving people but at the same time, the youth is restless. T

here is a steady erosion of faith in New Delhi after the way they handled the talks. I strongly suggest that Ladakh being a strategic border region New Delhi should seriously consider the Ladakhi demands. In fact, they should make them feel more integral by devolving to them democratic powers to govern their state. This is required at a time when there is a perceptible shift in public attitudes.

Talking about elections, the lack of Opposition consensus vis-a-vis the Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency is also a cause of concern. Has the National Conference and the Congress reached any agreement yet?

There is no official announcement yet, but back-to-back talks are underway in New Delhi and soon we will have some official announcement on the seat-sharing formula for Ladakh. Having said that I think it should be mostly a bipolar contest between the Congress and the BJP in Leh. There is a consensus that splitting votes will only lead to a repeat of the mistake made in 2019, and I am hopeful leaders will think seriously on that issue.  

But that is not the only faultline. Despite Leh and Kargil coming together for a common cause, points of friction remain, including over who should be the candidate for the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat, a Muslim candidate from Kargil or a Buddhist candidate from Leh. The BJP’s 2019 win is attributed to these faultlines. How do you plan to tackle that this time?

It is true that there are competing aspirations between the two regions. And it is with the view of settling this once and for all that we have underlined the need to create an additional Lok Sabha seat from Ladakh in our charter of demands. But the upcoming election is crucial, and every seat counts. We have to come to a consensus. The anti-BJP plank with a view of safeguarding our regional interests should be the sole trigger for people, and all other differences can be buried for the time being. This calls for marathon deliberations with all stakeholders and that is being planned.

One hears that while the Congress will officially field a Buddhist from Leh as the INDIA candidate, it will also prompt one of its Muslim leaders from Kargil to stand as an Independent to preclude any other anti-Congress Muslim candidate from consolidating the Muslim votes in Kargil?

All permutations and combinations are being worked out but things have not been finalised yet.

Meanwhile Lieutenant Governor B.D. Mishra has been asserting his development works lately, saying infrastructure, employment generation, etc. have seen a considerable boost. He also says that land has not been swarmed by non-locals as is being projected by the Opposition to mislead the people.

First of all, since the model code of conduct is in force the UT administration should avoid announcing or even talking about any schemes or policies. Even comments on X will be a gross violation. As far as the UT administration’s tall claims of development are concerned, everyone is aware of the scale of resentment in the people. The tall talks do not match the ground reality. It is only since last year that secretaries’ buildings and staff quarters have been constructed. 

Most schemes are in limbo after their announcement with much fanfare. They announced a medical college in Leh but till now only the boundary wall of the earmarked plot has been constructed. They promised a central university for Ladakh but nobody has a clue about what happened to it thereafter. The state of the infrastructure of government schools is deplorable. Many subdivisional hospitals lack proper medical staff and facilities.

The UT state helicopter services have no pilots and emergency medical evacuations are getting difficult. Recruitment rules with many departments are still not finalised. Despite Home Ministery assurances of increasing the roster of Gazetted post reservations up to 80 per cent for Ladakh’s residents, we have not received any notification on that. At the moment it is 45 per cent and it is not solely reserved for Ladakh which is deplorable. The UT administration and even the BJP’s national leaders boast they have earmarked Rs. 6,000 crore annual budget for Ladakh, but only 10 per cent of that budget is handed down to the elected hill councillors, who are the real representatives of the Ladakhi masses. The LG administration is unable to utilise the remaining 90 per cent of the budget, and bulk of it lapses every year which is sad.