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| Lawmakers from Ladakh lambast PDP-BJP Govt | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, July 11: Former BJP ministers in the out-of-office Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition government are in the dock. It's not just that the local Congress leaders from Ladakh are critical of the anti-Ladakh policies which were being pursued by the Mehbooba Mufti Government and they are embarrassing the PDP-BJP coalition government in general and BJP ministers in particular. What has embarrassed the BJP ministers all the more was the blistering attack on them by the BJP lawmakers from Ladakh itself, including lone Ladakh MP Thupstan Chhewang, and BJP MLC and former minister in the Mehbooba Mugti's government Chering Dorjay.
The BJP lawmakers from Ladakh lambasted the BJP-PDP government during their meeting with Governor NN Vohra at Leh. They told the Governor that things in Ladakh were never so bad as they were during the PDP-BJP rule and that their region witnessed worst form of discrimination. "Jammu & Kashmir Government headed by Mehbooba Mufti of which the BJP was also a part perpetuated 'worst ever discrimination on Ladakh region," they said, adding that they were in "favour of continuation of Governor's rule in Jammu & Kashmir".
They, in addition, accused the PDP-BJP coalition government of denying "adequate funds to the Autonomous Hill Council Development under the state sector".
Not just Thupstan Chhewang and Chering Dorjay, at lease four Executive Councilors of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh, including the officiating Chairman-cum-Chief Executive Councilor, also lambasted the PDP-BJP coalition government. They met the Governor separately and told him that the PDP-BJP government stalled almost all the projects.
Earlier on July 9, as many as 29 delegations from Ladakh met with the visiting Congress Policy Planning Group on Jammu & Kashmir, which was led by former Home and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who was accom anied by Leader of Opposition in RS Ghulam Nabi Azad, JKPCC chief GA Mir, Tariq Hamid Karra and Leader of Congress Legislature Party in the Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly Nawang Rigzin Jora. Almost all of them, including Ladakhi Buddhist Association, told the visiting Congress team that they were all for Union Territory status for their region, as that was the only option available to them to save the region's distinct identity and culture. They, in fact, reiterated their age-old demand seeking for their region the status of Union Territory.
Ladakhis have been demanding separation of Ladakh from Kashmir since 1947 itself, when the state acceded to the Indian Dominion. They started their movement under the leadership of Head Lama of Ladakh Koshuk Bakula. In 1989, the Buddhists took to violent means to achieve their demand. The violence led to two killings and injuries to many in October 1989. The then Union Home Minister Buta Singh visited Leh. He held discussions with the agitating Ladakhis. After deliberations, the Union Government agreed to set up an Autonomous Hill Development Council at Leh. The Buddhists accepted the government offer as a first step towards their final goal. The leadership said: "It was putting its demand for UT status at the backburner in the national interest".
The meetings between Ladakhi leaders and the Congress leaders and between the former and the state Governor in a short span of just two days only served to demonstrate that the people of Ladakh, especially Leh district, are fed up with what they call "Kashmiri domination and hegemony" and that they are determined to snap all their ties with Kashmiri leadership. It bears recalling that Late Mufti Sayeeed had opposed the creation of Autonomous Hill Development Council in Ladakh, saying creation of such a regime in the trans-Himalayan Ladakh will "hurt the psyche of Kashmiri people". |
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