The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Why NC Kargil leaders resigned en masse
As Congress decides on a leader from Leh for sole Ladakh Lok Sabha seat, fractures with Kargil resurface
THE ENTIRE Kargil unit of the National Conference (NC) has resigned citing pressure from the party leadership to support the INDIA bloc candidate for the Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency, which votes on May 20.
Underlying this move is a yearning for representation in Kargil, which feels ignored yet again as the INDIA bloc chooses a candidate from Leh again for the Ladakh ticket. As part of the seat-sharing pact between the NC and the Congress,ladakh has gone to the Congress and it nominated Tsering Namgyal. However, a day prior, the Kargil units of both the parties had announced NC district president Haji Mohammad Hanifa Jan as a consensus candidate.
This led to speculation of another fracture in the INDIA bloc, after the NC and PDP went their separate ways in Kashmir, with both fielding candidates for the three seats in the Valley. However, NC president Farooq Abdullah issued a whip to the party’s Ladakh unit, directing them to support Namgyal.
Hours later, NC additional general secretary Qamar Ali Akhoon held a press conference announcing en masse resignation of the party's Kargil unit, and support for Hanifa Jan.
In a letter to Farooq, Akhoon wrote, “As the party insists us to act against the interest of the people... so we are compelled to resign... This letter may be considered as the mass resignation of all party functionaries from the primary membership of the J&K National Conference.”
What lies at the heart of the NC Kargil unit's protest?
In the five general elections since 1999, the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat has been represented by candidates from the NC, once by Independent MP Thupstan Chhewang, who is now associated with the BJP, and more recently by the BJP’S Jamyang Tsering Namgyal. Four of the five times the MP has been from the Buddhist-dominated Ladakh.
The last time a candidate from the Muslim-dominated Kargil region was elected was in 1999, when former NC leader Hassan Khan, belonging to Silmoo, won as an Independent.
How have BJP, Ladakh come to dominate regional politics?
A BJP member at the time, Thupstan Chhewang, belonging to Leh, won from Ladakh for the first time in 2004 and repeated it in 2014. He has also served as the president of the Ladakh
Buddhist Association, the most influential religious body in the region, and was the Chief Executive Councillor (CEC) of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Hill Council (LAHDC), Leh, before being elected as MP. He was also at the forefront of the demand for UT status for Ladakh.
In 2018, when Ladakh was still a part of J&K, the erstwhile state was swept by protests in the wake of the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani. As the PDP-BJP government fell and J&K came under Central rule, Chhewang resigned from the BJP.
But in the 2019 elections, the BJP again won Ladakh, with Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, a resident of Leh, becoming one of
the youngest MPS in India. Namgyal also served as the CEC of the LAHDC, Leh, earlier. BJP candidate Tashi Gyalson is the current CEC of the LAHDC, Leh.
What has it meant on the ground?
The last 10 years of representation from Ladakh are seen on the ground as, essentially, a representation of Leh in Parliament and not Kargil. Of the voters for the Ladakh seat in this election, 95,928 belong to Kargil, and 88,875 for Leh.
The two regions are also demographically different and politically at odds, converging only recently over the core issue of seeking protections for Ladakh under the Sixth
Schedule of the Constitution.
Even before the revocation of Article 370 and splitting of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories Leh had sought separation from J&K’S administrative set-up. But Kargil remained against the move. While the revocation of Article 370 initially saw protests only in Kargil, the celebrations and hopes on the Leh side have also dried up, with fears growing of “loss of culture and land to outsiders”.
What is at stake for Centre?
As India shares an uneasy borderwithchinainladakh,arestive population in the Union Territory is untenable for the Centre. With these considerations in mind, the Union Home Ministry constituted a High Powered Committee last December to consider Ladakh’s demands.
However, discussions hit an impasse in February over the alleged refusal of the ministry to agree to the inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule that would have given it more autonomous powers. Incidentally, one of the key demands before the committee is the creation of separate parliamentary constituencies for Kargil and Leh.
Professor Siddiq Wahid, Distinguished Professor at Shiv Nadar University, who hails from Ladakh, says that Kargil’s complaints about not getting “consistent, Kargil-specific issues representation in the Lok Sabha as a UT are not without merit”.
Furthermore, he says, Ladakh being a border region, “it is important that the unity between Leh and Kargil... be preserved”.
What do leaders have to say?
Hanifa Jan told The Indian Express that four years after the bifurcation of J&K, people were still seeking safeguards for the tribal culture of the region. “The UT set-up is not agreeable and the people are feeling stifled.”
A candidate from Leh means preference for development works remains with Leh, Hanifa said, adding: “At this point, however, what is more important is that Ladakh remains united above party lines and politics.”
Hanifa said that as far as the NC and Congress go, “they are together in Kargil and working to safeguard the future of people”.
Sajjad Kargili, a political activist from Kargil who contested the last MP election,withdrew his nomination papers this time, in the interest of unity and is backing Hanifa Jan. “One of the reasons representation from Kargil is important this time is because Kargil’s grievances for over a decade have not been given a hearing in Parliament. Whether it is our border issues, education, or closure of roads, it is not discussed anywhere,” he said.
He also raised the issue of Shia Muslims, saying they have little to no representation in Parliament. “Kargil is the only region in the country that can provide representation to nearly 5 crore Shias in the country. So it is about the Ladakh identity, but also the Shia identity of the people of Kargil.”