On Wednesday, huge protests occurred in Leh as the protesters took to the streets and demanded the statehood of Ladakh and the Centre to initiate negotiations on including the region in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. According to local news agencies, police reacted with tear gas and batons when a section of the crowd was reported to have gone out of control, throwing stones and setting fire to the BJP office in Leh.
The unrest is a wider agitation by the Ladakh Apex Body (LAB), the youth wing of which has declared a 35-day hunger strike, which began on September 10. The strike escalated when two of the 15 hunger strikers ended up in the hospital, a fact that led the youth wing to demand increasing protests and closure of government services. The goal of the LAB has always been two-fold: to acquire full statehood in Ladakh and a formal extension of the Sixth Schedule- a process that provides special autonomy to tribal regions all over the nation.
The demonstration drew hundreds of protesters to the streets of Leh, leading to a conflict with the police in a tense standoff, which highlighted the level of local frustration. In the panhandling, Sonam Wangchuk, an activist and a longtime proponent of the statehood of Ladakh, delivered an impassioned, but level-headed request to have peace. He cautioned that protests will never enhance the validity of the statehood movement, but instead, the people should focus their demands through peaceful discussions instead of fighting.
Traditionally, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir absorbed Ladakh in 1965, and, after the reorganisation of 2019, it became an independent Union Territory on August 5, 2019. Local politicians have claimed since then that Ladakh has its own unique cultural identity and a geographic separation and should receive statehood just as Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. The argument in the Sixth Schedule, in its turn, might grant the area considerable administrative freedom, particularly in the matters of education, health, and local administration.
The central government is under increasing pressure to make concessions as the protesters carry on. In the meantime, the residents of Ladakh are not giving up, as they are hoping that the continued protest and political pressure will finally lead to the statehood and independence they desire.
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