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The Print
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
3-day hunger strike by Kargil, Leh bodies ends with rally to demand statehood for Ladakh
Thousands of participants including religious leaders and hill council members marched through the town, chanting slogans in favour of statehood, Sixth Schedule, Public Service Commission and separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil — the four major demands for which the KDA and the LAB are jointly spearheading the agitation over the past four years and have held several rounds of talks with the High Powered Committee (HPC) of Ministry of Home Affairs. The rally started from the venue of the hunger strike at Hussaini Park in the town and saw the leaders of both the groupings including LAB co-chairman Chering Dorjay and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, KDA co-chairmen Asgar Ali Karbalai and Qamar Ali Akhoon, and Ladakh Member Parliament (MP) Mohammad Haneefa Jan leading from the front. Kargil, Aug 11 (PTI) A three-day hunger strike jointly organised by the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) and the Leh Apex Body (LAB) in support of their demands including statehood for Ladakh and its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution ended with a massive rally here with participants warning to intensify their agitation if the central government continues its 'delaying tactics' to hold fresh round of talks with them. The participants also raised slogans like 'Hindustan Zindabad' and 'hum bheek nahi apna haq maangate' (We do not beg for alms, we demand our rights) before returning to the Hussaini Park, where the leaders of the two bodies addressed the gathering and accused the government of forcing them to come on the roads by delaying the talks. 'This is a historic rally and a powerful message that the people of Ladakh are united in support of the four demands. We have started the fresh protest from Kargil but it will not be restricted to this district alone but will be taken to every nook and corner of Ladakh if the government does not show its willingness to continue the dialogue and address our concerns,' Dorjay said. He accused the central government of delaying the talks without any reason. 'We are in agitation for a long time now and if the government of India calls off the talks, we have no option but to intensify the struggle,' he said. He said the government will try to divide the people of Ladakh but 'we have to demonstrate unity which is key for the success of our struggle to safeguard our homeland'. Karbalai said the core group of both groups will meet later in the day to chalk out the future course of action. 'We have already decided to intensify our agitation as the government had promised to hold the next round of talks within one month after our last meeting in May. They are not showing seriousness,' he said. PTI TAS TAS KSS KSS This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Scroll.in
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
‘Core issues remain': Why Ladakh's leaders are dissatisfied with Centre's new domicile rules
After multiple rounds of talks with leaders from Ladakh, the Centre has announced a new domicile and job reservation policy for the Union territory. The anxiety over natives losing control over land, resources and employment opportunities had driven sustained protests in Ladakh over the last five years. By reserving most government jobs for local residents and elaborate restrictions on who can be a domicile of Ladakh, the Narendra Modi government has sought to address the demands from the cold desert region. However, the Ladakhi leadership has called it only a 'first step' and a 'breakthrough' in reaching a resolution. 'Our two main issues pertaining to statehood for Ladakh and Sixth Schedule status are still pending,' said Chering Dorjay, a senior Ladakhi leader and chairman of Leh Apex Body, one of the two bodies who carried out negotiations with the Union government on behalf of the people of Ladakh. 'There has been no discussion on those issues as of now.' He added: 'The core issues remain unaddressed.' The Ladakhi leadership had sought a constitutional guarantee in the form of the Sixth Schedule which guarantees protections over land and a nominal autonomy for the country's tribal areas. In Ladakh, more than 97% of the population belongs to Scheduled Tribes. More crucially, the new rules do not impose any restrictions on outsiders buying land in Ladakh, the leaders said. What the new policy entails When New Delhi decided to create a separate Union territory of Ladakh without from the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019, there was euphoria in Leh. However, the implications of the decision to scrap Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution soon became clear. Like the rest of the citizens of the now non-existent state of Jammu and Kashmir, the people of Ladakh had also lost their exclusive rights to own immovable property and get government jobs in the region. In August 2021, both Kargil and Leh rejected the Union territory status for Ladakh and demanded statehood instead. By 2022, the growing anxiety over non-locals being eligible to own land and take jobs in Ladakh had crystallized into a set of four demands of the Ladakh's leadership: statehood to Ladakh; constitutional safeguards under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution; separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil districts and the rollout of a recruitment process and a separate Public Service Commission for Ladakh. The Centre's June 2 decision partially addresses those demands. Under the new rules, only a person who has resided in Ladakh for a period of 15 years since its formation as a union territory on October 31, 2019, shall be eligible to be a domicile of the Union territory. A person who has studied for a period of seven years – from October 31, 2019 – and written Class 10 or Class 12 examinations in an educational institution located in the Union territory of Ladakh, also qualifies to be a domicile. The domicile rule, however, is 'valid only for the purpose of appointment to the posts under the Union territory of Ladakh as defined in Ladakh Civil Services Decentralization and Recruitment.' The Centre has also brought in an ordinance to amend the reservation policy. According to this, 85% of jobs and admissions in professional educational institutions in Ladakh shall be reserved for residents of the Union territory. This includes 80% of reservation for Scheduled Tribes, 4% for those living along the Line of Control or the Line of Actual Control and 1% for Scheduled Castes. This is in addition to the 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections. Prior to this, the cap on reservation in Jammu and Kashmir, of which Ladakh was a part, was 50 %. Leh Apex Body's Dorjay acknowledged that the central government has addressed employment-related insecurities. 'What's happened is that 95% of government jobs are now reserved for locals,' he said. But he added: 'It's a breakthrough but there's not much [more] to it.' Sajjad Kargili, the representative of Kargil Democratic Alliance, the group that represents Kargil district in the negotiations with the Centre, said that the domicile policy has left them dissatisfied. 'Our demand is that instead of 15 years, the mandatory duration of living in Ladakh should be 30 years if anyone wants to become a domicile,' he said. According to Kargili, the Ladakh leadership has already raised the matter with the Centre. 'They have assured us that they will consider this demand. It's in the minutes of the meeting,' Kargili added. The land question With the protections under Article 370 and Article 35A gone in 2019, there is no bar against buying immovable property in the region. As of now, no law stops outsiders from buying land in Ladakh – a source of anxiety for the residents. Indeed, the leadership in Ladakh is conscious that the new rules are ambiguous about this concern. 'The domicile policy is only for jobs and it only talks about that domiciles are eligible for government jobs,' said another member of the Ladakh leadership, who was part of the deliberations with the Centre and declined to be identified. For now, the member said, they are assuming that this domicile policy has no bearing on land rights as the Centre's notification clearly states that domicile is valid only for government jobs. 'If that's not the case and if it has any bearing on land rights, then we don't accept the domicile policy.' The member pointed out that they had agreed to the domicile policy only because of the jobs crisis in Ladakh. Since 2019, recruitment in government jobs has stalled in Ladakh, owing to the lack of clarity over who qualifies for domicile status. With a new policy now in place, the Ladakh leadership is now waiting for the government to finalise recruitment rules and advertise vacancies. 'It's a sort of an interim relief,' the member of the Ladakh leadership said. 'It's what the MHA officials call picking the low-hanging fruit. Now, we will wait for the government to advertise vacancies.' J&K and Ladakh: A study in contrast Even though the Ladakh leadership argued that the Centre's decisions do not address the fundamental demands of the people of Ladakh, many say the region has got a better deal than the neighbouring Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. On Twitter, Jammu-based political commentator Zafar Choudhary criticised political leaders in both Jammu and Kashmir for failing to negotiate such a deal with the Centre. Both Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh took the formal shape of Union territories on October 31, 2019. But the Centre showed a visible urgency in framing domicile rules for Jammu and Kashmir. In March 2020, just five months after formally becoming a Union territory and amidst a nationwide lockdown to fight the coronavirus, the Union home ministry issued the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Order 2020. Under these rules, anyone who 'who has resided for a period of 15 years in the union territory of J&K or has studied for a period of seven years and appeared in Class 10th/12th examination in an educational institution located in the UT of J&K' qualifies to be a domicile of Jammu and Kashmir. At that time, many Kashmiri political leaders were in detention or under house arrest. Many political parties had described the order as 'humiliating'. National Conference leader and current chief minister Omar Abdullah, who had been just released from a long detention had questioned the timing of the order. 'At a time when all our efforts & attention should be focused on the #COVID outbreak the government slips in a new domicile law for J&K. Insult is heaped on injury when we see the law offers none of the protections that had been promised,' Abdullah had posted on his Twitter/X account on April 1, 2020. Unlike Ladakh, where the domicile rule applies prospectively, beginning from October 31, 2019, the domicile rules in the case of Jammu and Kashmir applied retrospectively. That means that anyone who had been living in Jammu and Kashmir for a period of 15 years until the notification of domicile rules in 2020 was eligible to be a domicile of Jammu and Kashmir. In other words, while Ladakh will get new domiciles only after 2034, in the case of Jammu and Kashmir, many non-natives, who fulfill the criteria of domicile rules, have already become part of Jammu and Kashmir's population. In April, the Jammu and Kashmir government informed the legislative Assembly that more than 83,000 individuals who were not originally permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir have been granted domicile certificates over the past two years. The revelation had added to the anxieties of the Muslim-majority Union territory where the fear of demographic change has become one of the main concerns since August, 2019. The next round Besides the domicile and reservation policy for Ladakh, the Centre has also recognised English, Hindi, Urdu, Bhoti and Purgi languages as the official languages 'to be used for all or any of the official purposes of the Union territory' of Ladakh. It has also reserved one-third of the total seats in the two Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils of Leh and Kargil for women. Even though New Delhi might view these as significant steps, Ladakh's leadership says these were not part of their demands. 'There was nothing about language or reservation of women in our demands,' Dorjay added. 'Our demands are concerned with the overall protection and security of the people of Ladakh.' With the next meeting between the centre's High-Powered Committee and the Ladakh leadership likely towards the end of this month, the questions like statehood and Sixth Schedule status will rise again. 'We are not going back on these two demands,' Dorjay added.
The Wire
04-06-2025
- Business
- The Wire
‘Issue of Statehood and Sixth Schedule Unresolved': Ladakh Leaders as Union Govt Notifies New Rules
Srinagar: The new reservation and domicile policies brought out by the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)-led Union government for Ladakh have fallen short of addressing widespread concerns over the constitutional disempowerment and suspension of democracy in the border region following its separation from Jammu and Kashmir in 2019. 'For us, the main issue of statehood and the inclusion of Ladakh in Sixth Schedule remains unresolved,' Leh Apex Body (LAB) leader Chering Dorjay, who has been leading talks with the Union government over the last more than two years along with members of Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), told The Wire . He added, 'While we welcome the new measures, we want the government to talk about restoration of statehood now and granting of constitutional safeguards for Ladakh in some form. The job reservation was a small problem which should have been solved much earlier but the government sat on the matter unnecessarily for a long time.' Environmentalist and innovator Sonam Wangchuk, who has been protesting against the alleged disempowerment of Ladakh in the aftermath of its separation from J&K in 2019 and demotion into a Union territory (UT) without a legislature, said that the reservation policy was the least important demand of the LAB-KDA combine. 'In urgency, it (reservation policy) was the highest, but in importance it was the lowest. They (LAB-KDA combine) seem to have mutually decided (with the Union government) on picking the low hanging fruit first,' Wangchuk said, adding that the government didn't concede the demand of the LAB-KDA combine to set the condition of 30 years continuous residency for a non-local in Ladakh to obtain domicile certificate. The Ladakh Civil Services Decentralization and Recruitment (Amendment) Regulation, 2025, which was notified by President Droupadi Murmu along with a set of new regulations on Monday (June 2) and Tuesday (June 3), sets 15-year continuous residency from October 31, 2019 for a non-local to obtain domicile certificate among other rules. The rules for obtaining domicile certificate have been laid out in the Ladakh Civil Services Domicile Certificate Rules, 2025. Ladakhi leader Mohammad Haneefa Jan, who won the region's only Lok Sabha seat in 2024 general election as an independent candidate, said that the new domicile policy was 'meaningless' in the absence of restoration of Ladakh's statehood. 'The government had agreed on a new domicile policy earlier also, so there is nothing new in it, especially because the LAB and KDA leaderships' demand of 30 years continuous residence has not been conceded by the Union government,' he said. While the rules governing the new regulations are yet to be specified, LAB chief Dorjay said that 95% jobs (including 10% for 'Economically Weaker Section' category) were now reserved for local domiciles under the Ladakh Reservation (Amendment) Regulation, 2025, which was also notified on Tuesday. The new regulation increases the cap on reservation in government jobs in Ladakh from 50% to 85% for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), and other educationally and socially backward groups. 'Even if outsiders become domiciles of Ladakh after 2034, they can only compete for five percent of jobs while 95 percent jobs are reserved for original residents which is the highest in the country,' Dorjay said. He said that unlike in Jammu and Kashmir which got a domicile policy with retrospective effect after 2019, the policy in Ladakh has a prospective effect, 'The policy has been extended to admissions to medical, engineering and other professional institutions in Ladakh,' Dorjay said. According to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, Ladakh has more than 83% tribal population and the new rules are seen as an attempt by the BJP to quell widespread public anger over the erosion of Ladakh's unique identity and appropriation of work opportunities in the government by outsiders post 2019. However, Ladakhi leader Jan, who is also a member of a high-powered committee set up by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in 2023 to examine the four-point demands of LAB-KDA combine, said that the main issue of negotiations was the 'restoration of democracy' in Ladakh. 'The country came out of the British colonial rule in 1947 but Ladakh has been pushed into slavery since 2019. We have no role in policymaking and the imported bureaucratic regime has turned Ladakh into an arena of slavery. The government should now focus on resolving the main issues,' he said. Wangchuk, who went on hunger strikes twice last year to demand constitutional safeguards under Sixth Schedule, also cautioned that the 15-years clause in the new domicile policy has not gone down well among the people of Ladakh. 'They were hoping for at least 30 years of continuous residence and the new regulation has not made them too happy. It was, however, important to address this issue because all the vacancies in the government are blocked which is not good for the administration to run the system and it is not good for the youth of Ladakh to remain unemployed,' he said. Wangchuk said that the next two meetings between the Ladakh civil society and the MHA were going to be crucial to determine the future course of the agitation. He said that many people are projecting the regulations on reservation and domicile as 'some kind of resolution' for the problems in Ladakh 'which is far from truth'. 'If the central government sincerely discusses safeguards under Sixth Schedule and restoration of democracy and statehood, then people would be very happy. But if they don't and hold the hill council elections, then it will impact the credibility of any democratic process,' he said. In the 2020 Hill Council election, the promise to include Ladakh in Sixth Schedule figured among the top three agendas of the BJP's election manifesto for the border region. According to the manifesto, the party promised to protect 'land, job and environment' by bringing 'constitutional safeguards under Sixth Schedule' with the agenda of 'political empowerment' of Ladakh following its separation from Jammu and Kashmir. 'It completes a full circle,' Wangchuk said of the BJP's reference to the Sixth Schedule in its election manifesto, 'If that promise is not fulfilled again, then consequences will be seen in the election as was seen in the 2024 parliamentary election when the BJP lost in Ladakh because in 2019 parliamentary election, they had promised to include Ladakh in Sixth Schedule and failed to fulfil it.' He added, 'In a democracy, people send a message through the electoral process which is what might happen again after the parliamentary election in the hill council election towards the end of September this year.' Among a series of notifications issued by President Murmu also includes the Ladakh Official Languages Regulation, 2025 which recognises English, Hindi, Urdu, Bhoti and Purgi as official languages of the Union Territory with making recommendations about their use, and The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (Amendment) Regulation, 2025 under which one-third of seats in Hill Councils in Kargil and Leh would be reserved for women. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
