Asgar Ali Karbalai is angry, thanks to what he calls a “betrayal” by the government. “The Ministry of Home Affairs has backtracked and the Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance sees this as a breach of trust. It has gone back on its signed agreement and on what was negotiated and agreed,” he said.
It is seemingly back to square one wherein the Leh Apex Body is unwilling to accept the formula that the centre has offered. “We are not asking for the moon, but we are rejecting the structure,” Karbalai said in an interview to a national daily recently.
Karbalai is co-chairperson of the Kargil Democratic Alliance and among the key people negotiating with the centre to resolve the issues confronting Ladakh. Talks between the government and representative bodies have hit a roadblock and there is clearly a trust deficit.
The proposed talks that were to take place on October 22 were put off amid growing differences among the civil society groups and the centre’s draft proposal for Ladakh. The civil society group is mainly represented by the Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance.
People in Ladakh are protesting primarily to demand full statehood, constitutional safeguards, and greater political and economic autonomy for the region. The core demands include restoring full statehood for Ladakh and the Sixth Schedule status.
For the record, Ladakh was converted into a Union Territory without a legislature in 2019. It was then split from Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370. As for the Sixth Schedule, it means granting tribal and indigenous population administrative and legislative autonomy over land, jobs, culture and environmental protection. As of now, tribal and indigenous populations constitute 97 percent of the region’s population.
The people in this desert plateau feel marginalized by direct governance from New Delhi. Locals also worry that incoming outsiders, industrial mining, large-scale solar projects, and mass tourism threaten their fragile cold-desert ecosystem and indigenous identity. These issues have led to shutdowns and violent clashes with the security forces.
Tone and tenor apart, Karbalai has asserted that “we are going back and reviving our demand of statehood and Sixth Schedule for Ladakh”.
Obviously, there are gaps between what was agreed and what the centre is now proposing to deliver by way of a “negotiated settlement” to the leaders and the people of Ladakh. “The original demand was one of statehood and Sixth Schedule and what we have agreed to is 371K: a sue generis structure with legislative, executive, financial powers and also which gives constitutional safeguards to Ladakh. They promised to give us the best protections under this Article, but the centre has gone back on that promise. They are now wanting to substitute that with an agency type of a model which is not acceptable to us. Call it an agency or a Territorial body which they are offering wherein all the powers are with the Lieutenant Governor. This is not acceptable to us. We have been against this model from day one,” Karbalai said, quite clear that this is shortchanging the people. “Cheating,” to quote him.
“We don’t want to be controlled by the Lieutenant Governor which is why we were originally demanding statehood,” he clarified, adding that the Apex body has never taken extreme positions. “Since 2021, we are talking; we are negotiating with the Ministry of Home Affairs. Six years have passed and still we are hoping against hope and merely asking for what they themselves had promised. Our long-term goal is statehood and this structure that they promised was a first step towards that goal,” said Karbalai, asserting that the promise must be kept and there should be no attempt to curtail their powers.
Crying foul over the centre’s bid to bring in a parallel structure to dilute the spirit of the original deal, so to speak, he said: “There was never any mention of a parallel structure and it is a new element that they have introduced. It is something we will never accept”.
On whether this would amount to closing the door and negotiations coming to a naught, Karbalai said: “We are not closing the door. It is they who have ended the game. Not us. The ball is in their court”.
On the allegation that the centre is buying time and not negotiating with the intention of a closure, Karbalai said: “It is their tactic… a gameplan to delay things rather than resolving the issue. They are toying with the sentiments of the people of Ladakh. They are pushing the people of Ladakh to the wall. It is not in the interest of the country to give a go-by to the aspirations of the people of Ladakh. If you trample and ride roughshod, do you think the Ladakhis will remain silent?” He warned the centre and demanded that it pay heed before it is too late.
Is the centre listening?
—The writer is an author, journalist and political commentator
The post “We Have Been Cheated, Betrayed”: Ladakh Leaders Accuse Centre Of Going Back On Its Word appeared first on India Legal.