Completely decommissioned in Ladakh to affirm the need for state rights, constitutional protections
In the districts of Leh and Kargil, the streets took on a desolate look.
Ladakh:
A complete shutdown is being observed in Ladakh to fuel the need for statehood for the region to be considered a separate union territory in August 2019.
In the districts of Leh and Kargil, the streets took on a desolate look. All commercial and business activities have come to a standstill in Leh. The call for the bandh was launched by a Leh-based body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA). Both groups formed an alliance and threatened to agitate to support their claim to statehood. They also require constitutional protections on the lines of the 6th schedule; split parliamentary seats for Leh and Kargil districts and recruited 12,000 positions in Ladakh.
Ironically, when J&K was stripped of its state status and downgraded to two union territories, there were celebrations in Leh. The Ladakh Buddhist Association, then part of the celebrations, is now a member of a political coalition that demands state and constitutional guarantees for rights to jobs and land specifically for Ladakh people.
Initially, the BJP unit in Ladakh was part of the coalition but later withdrew from the alliance due to criticism of the party for “doubles”.
It was also the first time that leaders in Muslim-majority Kargil and Buddhist-dominated Leh joined hands for their political future.
The move presents a major challenge to the central government amid a prolonged military standoff along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. The Center and the BJP have advertised Ladakh as a separate union territory, a historic move that would bring development and end decades of discrimination.
Within two years, however, the people of Leh and Kargil felt politically constrained and had banded together against the center and what they called bureaucratic rule in the union territory.
After the formation of the coalition, Thupstan Chewang, the head of the Leh peak agency, said that the whole of Ladakh was united in their claim of state status and constitutional protections just like it had been. are entitled under the provisions of special status where no outsiders can own land and be assigned jobs in Ladakh.
After revoking J&K’s special status, the Center promised to restore the status at an “appropriate time”. Recently, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that federal status for J&K would only be restored after council elections are held in the union territory. So far, there is no indication of when parliamentary elections will be held.
The Delimitation Committee established in March 2020 to delimit assembly seats has not submitted its report to date. The council election process can only be started after the council seats have been allocated.
With the exception of the BJP, all political parties are demanding restoration of state status before the election. The parties in the region who have opposed the Center’s decision in the Supreme Court have asked for the restoration of special status which they see as the only constitutional link between the original state and the confederacy of India.
However, even before the Center called for the restoration of J&K’s status, Ladakh was emerging as a new political challenge to the BJP government.
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