Wangchuk tried to create Nepal and Bangladesh-like unrest: Govt tells SC

NEW DELHI: Justifying detention of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk under National Security Act, govt on Monday told Supreme Court that he was trying to create political and social unrest in Ladakh and was making an attempt to emulate what happened in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Appearing before a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and P B Varale, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said the activist was appealing to Gen Z to come out on the street against govt to create a problem in Ladakh which is very sensitive as it shares borders with countries that are not very friendly. Responding to Wangchuk’s submission that he was holding a peaceful protest against govt on the line of Gandhian principles, the SG said, “Gandhi was just a facade to hide his real intention of instigating violence.”


Mehta said the activist was detained as per law and there was no violation in the procedure. He said the order of detention was served upon him which took almost four hours as he was shown all of his offensive video clips which was relied upon to detain him. The entire procedure was videograpped.

Reading out Wangchuk’s speech, the SG told SC he was talking about the Arab Spring and what happened in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to instigate people to come out in large numbers against govt. “You are asking Gen Z to come out. You are anticipating or hoping for a riot-like situation in Nepal. It is a clear instigation... Comparison with Mahatma Gandhi is fallacious and only a facade to hide inflammatory and instigatory speech,” he told the bench.


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