By Kumkum Chadha
From tweeting “Thank you Prime Minister for fulfilling Ladakh’s long standing dream” to “My arrest will awaken the nation more than my freedom”, activist Sonam Wangchuk’s relationship with the ruling dispensation has undergone a dramatic change: from being hailed as a hero, he is suddenly a villain; from being a game changer he is one who is being linked to Pakistan and from being an environmentalist to one who has violated the law on foreign funding.
The “Thank you…” tweet to Prime Minister Narendra Modi dates back to 2019 when the centre had separated Ladakh from the state of Jammu and Kashmir and made it a Union territory: a long-standing demand of the people of Ladakh. Till the abrogation of Article 370, Ladakh was part of Jammu and Kashmir state. With the Modi government’s move, it was made a union territory.
But the tide has turned, and today, the same government that Wangchuk had hailed some six years ago, has thrown him in jail. In September this year, Wangchuk was arrested and transported to a jail in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
Ladakh witnessed violent clashes in between protestors and security forces. If protestors set the local office of the BJP on fire, the security forces shot dead four protesters.
There are two versions of this bloody story: the administration’s versus the people. Ladakh’s Lieutenant Governor Kavinder Gupta has stated on record that if the police had not opened fire during the protests in Leh, entire Ladakh would have been burnt down. Pitch this against the Leh Apex Body’s contention that protestors were shot in the head and chest. In the eye of a storm is Wangchuk: BJP’s poster-boy-turned accused: discredited and targeted.
Today, some 1,600-odd km from his home state, Wangchuk is battling charges of being anti-national, conspiring to overthrow the government, and instigating violence in Ladakh: the very man who had done promotional campaigns in Ladakh is today suspect: “Suddenly, in a month, the same government that was decorating him is calling him an anti-national,” said Gitanjali Angmo, Wangchuk’s wife, reportedly. “The writing is on the wall: this is to silence him, to scare him because they could not buy him.”
It is common knowledge that Wangchuk is campaigning for the constitutional rights for Ladakh. He was on a hunger strike since September 10 even as the government alleged that he had left the venue to “instigate a mob”. Earlier, he had been accused of giving provocative speeches to incite the protestors.
Who is Wangchuk? What is his mission, rather agenda, like the BJP dispensation would like the people of this country to believe? Whose interests is he serving and why? And what is the unrest in Ladakh about? Why is the hill state on edge and why the violence: provoked or unprovoked?
Before September 2025, these were legitimate questions to which answers were unclear. Maybe they still are, but since Wangchuk’s arrest, the spotlight is on him as well as the issues the hill state is battling.
The big picture is Ladakh, but the lens is on Wangchuk. Together, they have brought issues centrestage and forced the administration and the government to address the discontent that has been simmering for the past few years. Therefore, when Wangchuk said that “a jailed Sonam Wangchuk is more problematic than a free Sonam Wangchuk”, he was not off the mark.
A local icon whose arrest has grabbed eyeballs, Wangchuk was born in a village near Leh. The family moved to Srinagar in 1975 after his father became a minister in Jammu and Kashmir. Wangchuk’s struggle was in school in Srinagar because he spoke only Ladakhi while classes were held in Urdu and Kashmiri. This is when he vowed to find an alternative: something he fulfilled after he graduated.
The alternative model school that he co-founded in Ladakh was aimed at reforming the educational system. Years later, he became nationally famous with innovations such as ice stupas to combat water scarcity, and solar tents for Indian soldiers stationed in harsh winters of Himalayas.
Wangchuk’s arrest is certainly an issue that is agitating the people. But it is no longer the centrepiece. Violence has ebbed, protests died down and the state is limping back to normal. Meanwhile, talks with the centre are on track with the Leh Apex Body negotiating with the government on its demands.
With a population of 3,00,000 people, Ladakh is inhabited by Buddhist and Muslim communities in Leh and Kargil, respectively. Their issues, as also mindsets, are diametrically opposite, with the Buddhist community demanding a separate region for its people and Muslims wanting to remain a part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Therefore, it is no surprise that following the abrogation of Article 370, Leh rejoiced and Kargil lamented.
Fast forward and the warring groups have called a truce and closed ranks. Call it opportunism if you will, but the leaders and civil society are putting up a united front to press their demands: a full statehood, incorporating Ladakh into the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, creating a distinct Public Service Commission and adding one parliamentary seat. While some of these demands are doable, it is the issue of statehood that is fraught with problems.
Outside Ladakh, the government’s reluctance on the statehood-issue is justified. The argument that Ladakh is a border state, and therefore sensitive, has takers. The government’s concerns seem valid given that Ladakh is a region which shares its borders with China and Pakistan.
Even domestically, statehood is a precarious issue. It is not Ladakh alone, but regions like Jammu and Kashmir that have been demanding statehood. In fact, the centre
has said that statehood will be granted to Jammu and Kashmir even while leaving the timing open-ended. Therefore, to even consider the demand for Ladakh without granting statehood to Jammu and Kashmir would be a betrayal, to put it mildly.
As for the Sixth Schedule, the government has been discussing the issue for some years now, but with little, rather no forward movement. The Sixth Schedule gives autonomy and provides constitutional safeguards to protect the tribes and their land rights, among other things. However, according to the Constitution, the Sixth Schedule is reserved exclusively for the North East, and no region outside it can be included.
Granting Sixth Schedule would open a Pandora’s box with regions like Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh too demanding it. These states have a sizable tribal population. While a Constitutional amendment is possible, the BJP is not ready to concede this demand. At least not yet.
In fact, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said that the central government promised to extend Sixth Schedule protections to the Union territory, because it wanted the people of Ladakh to participate in the 2023 hill council elections. “Knowing fully well that giving Sixth Schedule status to Ladakh is all but impossible. Because the Sixth Schedule makes it nearly impossible to acquire land even for defence purposes—and a territory that shares its border with China on one side and Pakistan on the other, cannot do without a sizable defense set up,” he had said.
As of now, Ladakh’s is a story of fallen heroes, violence, blood and deaths. It is about the anger of the educated youth: those who have degrees, but no jobs.
It is also one of broken promises. It is about a government dithering on the demands of the civil society and its activists. It is about the people feeling shortchanged on grounds that “they (the government) have given us a car, but one which is without an engine”.
—The writer is an author, journalist and political commentator