The Apex Body, Leh (ABL), which is negotiating with the government on Ladakh’s demands for statehood and protections under the Sixth Schedule, has called the detention of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk “very unfortunate”.
Addressing a press conference in Leh, ABL co-chairman Chhering Dorje Lakruk also alleged a bid to “tarnish” the agitation. “There is an attempt to give anti-national colour to the agitation. This is totally wrong,” he said. “When the BJP office was attacked, the youth tore away all the BJP flags, but left the Indian Tricolour alone,” he said.
Lakruk claimed that the police firing on protesters on Wednesday, leaving four dead and scores injured, may also have been part of a strategy to “suppress our movement”.
The ABL said its members would not attend the informal meeting called by the Union Home Ministry in Delhi Saturday, as they wanted to first pay their respects at the funerals of the four who died.
The press conference, where ABL leaders defended Wangchuk and distanced the organisation from Wednesday’s violent protests, was on when the climate activist was picked up.
Lakruk said: “There is an allegation that Sonam Wangchuk instigated the crowd. Some are saying it was the Congress. Which of these is true? All this narrative is absolutely false. These (statehood and Sixth Schedule) are genuine demands of the people. When they saw that the government was not serious about it, that it gave such a faraway date (October 6 for formal discussions)… These are unemployed, frustrated youth… all of them are poor, they are not kids of hoteliers and businessmen… What (was seen) was youth anger over these issues, expressed through violence.”
Police have registered four FIRs with regard to Wednesday’s violence. In three of them, former and current Congress councillors are named. The fourth is against unidentified youth, and so far 39 youngsters have been put in judicial custody in connection with it. ABL lawyers said they are in touch with their families to get them bail.
Lakruk also questioned the timing of the withdrawal of the FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) licence to Wangchuk’s NGO by the Centre, which was done Thursday. “If the government had a problem with the NGO’s funding, why is it taking action against him only after he started supporting our agitation? His NGO has been here for 30 years. Didn’t the government know all this? It has so many agencies here.”
Sajjad Kargili of the Kargil Democratic Alliance, who was on his way to Leh, criticised Wangchuk’s detention on “baseless charges”. “I strongly condemn this brutal crackdown on the Ladakhi leadership. Our struggle for statehood and Sixth Schedule will continue – no detention or witch-hunt can deter us,” Kargili said.
The ABL co-chair also criticised Lieutenant Governor Kavinder Gupta for insinuating a foreign or outsider hand in the agitation and in Wednesday’s violence. “Our LG sahab is saying there is foreign hand… that people from Doda (in Jammu), Nepal and Bihar were injured. It shows that they were only bystanders. In Leh, so many people come to work from outside. If you fire indiscriminately, outsiders will get hit.”
If as per Gupta “people from Doda, Kashmir and Nepal” were creating trouble in Ladakh, Lakruk added: “What was his administration doing? Was it sleeping?… They are saying all this to hide their own mistakes.”
Questioning the police firing on crowds, he said: “The CRPF beat up bystanders brutally. Many are still in hospital. Almost 95% of the injuries are bullet or pellet injuries. Bullets are still lodged in bodies of some of the injured. This shows that the CRPF used excessive force. We don’t know what they were trying to prove. Earlier, we did not have so much CRPF here. It appears this was a planned deployment to suppress our movement.”
The ABL has demanded a judicial inquiry into the violence, particularly the police firing.
Lakruk said: “We had clearly said that if the government does not call us for negotiations on time, we will launch an agitation. We said this agitation would be peaceful.” He said the ABL protest was going on peacefully Wednesday, when some youths angry over the fact that two protesters who had been fasting had taken ill the day before, broke off and went “on a rampage”.
“Normally, not more than 500 people gathered at the protest site, but that day around 7,500 people came. A large number were youth… While speeches were on, some went out of control. They wanted to go out and demonstrate. We asked them not to. But they were in such large numbers that we could not contain them,” Lakruk said, adding that the protesters ignored appeals for peace by the ABL and Chairman Thupstan Chhewang.
“First they pelted stones at the LAHDC (Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council) office, and then attacked the BJP office. Police also began firing without any prior warning, and did not even use non-lethal weapons. This enraged the youth further. They were not afraid of bullets. Most of them were between 15 and 25 years of age and all educated young men. They were unemployed and angry,” Lakruk said.
On the informal talks scheduled in Delhi, Lakruk said: “Those who died have their funerals on September 28 and 29. We will go after that. We will then discuss the agenda for the October 6 meeting. We have made it clear that we only want to discuss statehood and the Sixth Schedule.”
The Sixth Schedule under Article 244 provides for formation of autonomous administrative divisions with certain legislative and judicial powers within a state. It currently applies to the Northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.