Wangchuk launches hunger strike for Ladakh's Sixth Schedule status, statehood

SRINAGAR: Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk began Wednesday a 35-day hunger strike to press for Sixth Schedule status and statehood for the Union territory of Ladakh. Wangchuk, who has earlier staged long marches to New Delhi and undertaken prolonged fasts, linked his protest to Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC-Leh) elections due in a month.

Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, originally crafted for tribal areas in the Northeast, grants special protections, including safeguards over land, culture, and resources through autonomous councils. Since the bifurcation of J&K into two UTs in 2019, Ladakh has seen protests demanding these protections, fearing unchecked industrial and demographic change.

“It is possible that in this hunger strike we might die. If we survive, we will return to go for another hunger strike for six more weeks,” Wangchuk told supporters as he launched what he called a new peaceful movement.

He accused Centre of stalling talks with Ladakhi leadership and trying to keep him out of negotiations. “Just as the real issues had to come up for discussion, Centre didn’t want to discuss them,” Wangchuk alleged, seated beside Leh Apex Body (LAB) co-chairman Chering Dorje Lakrook.

Union home ministry had formed a high-powered panel in Jan 2023 after prolonged protests. Its last meeting with the joint leadership of LAB and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) on May 27 yielded a domicile policy for Ladakh, but talks have not resumed since.

Wangchuk called the upcoming LAHDC polls a test of BJP’s credibility. “In the previous elections, the party listed Sixth Schedule for Ladakh as its first priority in its manifesto. But now, after five years, they want to bury that point. That is why they didn’t want me in the talks,” he said.

BJP swept the 2020 LAHDC-Leh polls, winning 15 of 26 seats. The council was set up under Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council Act of 1995 on then PM PV Narasimha Rao’s watch, with a parallel council created for Kargil in 2003 under then CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s PDP govt of undivided J&K.

Lakrook said LAB will take the campaign to every village. “We will be informing people about our movement and will tell them what statehood and the Sixth Schedule is,” he said.