Arvind Kejriwal Expresses Solidarity With Sonam Wangchuk's Climate Fast: "We Are With You And The People Of Ladakh" (image: screen grab from twitter/Wangchuk66)
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP nation convener Arvind Kejriwal on Monday expressed solidarity with the people of Ladakh over their various demands to the Centre including the special status. He shared the video of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk who is currently undertaking fast unto death protest to drew the Centre”s attention to its Ladakh promises.
Taking to social media platform X, Delhi Chief Minister wrote: “We are with you and the people of Ladakh. This is very serious and absolutely unacceptable how the centre has cheated Ladakh.” He has shared the video of Sonam Wangchuk alongside where the latter communicates the situation of Ladakh.
We are with you and the people of Ladakh. This is very serious and absolutely unacceptable how the centre has cheated Ladakh. https://t.co/GFDIU5uX8u
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) March 11, 2024
Sonam Wangchuk is the face of Ladakh’s campaign for constitutional rights including special status. He called the fast as “climate fast.”
In the video, as the fast enters fifth day, Sonam Wangchuk says that “this is not just for Ladakh, it”s also to heal the trust deficit in India.”
The activist states that in the lead-up to the 2019 parliamentary elections, the BJP in their election manifesto promised to protect Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule. However, he adds that by 2020, the ruling party had forgotten its promise, despite receiving complete support from Ladakhi people during the elections. Following, in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) elections in 2020, the people who felt disillusioned by the betrayal decided to boycott the polls. But, how the Union government, the activist recollects, in response to the boycott call of the Ladakhi leaders assured them of including Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule post the LAHDC elections, and pledged them into believing in their promises again. The innocent leaders of Ladakh believed the Union Government”s empty assurances and voted the BJP to power in the Hill Council elections.
Mentioning the trust deficit, he wrote: “Today people don”t trust each other, they don”t even trust leaders or the election process of EVMs.”
“Through this struggle we want to set a good precedence for all times to come,” Sonam Wangchuk tweeted.
Earlier, Ladakh was part of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir; when the special status provisions got abrogated in 2019, the state was bifurcated into the the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. At present, Ladakh has one Lok Sabha constituency but no longer has any assembly constituency.
