(TibetanReview.net, Apr07’24) — Well-known Ladakh-based Indian climate activist Mr Sonam Wangchuk has called off his planned Apr 7 march at the head of his supporters to the Chinese-occupied Tibet’s border. He wanted to “avoid any sort of confrontation with the law-enforcing agencies,” reported deccanchronicle.com Apr 6. He has said the purpose of staging the march had already been achieved in any case while vowing to continue the agitation for statehood.
Wangchuk, 57, had announced last month that he would lead around 10,000 people of Ladakh in a march to the Chinese occupied Tibet’s border to showcase the extent of the Ladakhi land lost to Chinese encroachment in the north and how the local farmers and shepherds were losing prime pastureland to huge industrial plants in the south.
Wangchuk, a Magsaysay Award winner and the founding-director of the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh, has also said, after ending a 21-day hunger strike on Mar 26, that the agitation to demand statehood for Ladakh will be intensified in coming weeks.
Ladakh is currently a Union Territory, after being a part of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir for many decades. Ladakhis find the Union Territory status to be inimical to their interests.
The decision to call off the march followed an Apr 5 order by the Leh District Magistrate Santosh Sukhadeve, imposing prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code), banning holding of processions, rallies and marches in the district without his prior approval “to prevent any breach of peace, disturbance to public tranquillity and danger to human life.”
The Union Territory status means that Ladakh is ruled by the central government through a Lieutenant Governor appointed by it, like in the case of the nation’s capital New Delhi whose embattled Aam Aadmi Party government too has been demanding full-statehood for it.
Also, Ladakh’s Additional Director General of Police Darshan Singh had ordered the suspension of mobile data of 3G, 4G and 5G and public Wi-Fi 5G facilities temporarily “in the interest of maintenance of public peace, and law and order” in the Union Territory, the report said.
The decision to call off the march was stated to have been announced by the Leh Apex Body (LAB) at a press conference on Apr 6 in which Wangchuk also took part. Its leaders have also said they had, in any case, already achieved their objective of creating awareness among the people of the country about the plight of farmers, who are allegedly losing prime pastureland to huge industrial plants in the south and to “Chinese encroachments”.
The report quoted Wangchuk also as saying: “We are concerned about national security and the peaceful atmosphere. Secondly, our aim to generate awareness in the country about the ground situation in Ladakh has been achieved, so we are withdrawing the proposed border march in the interest of people and to avoid confrontation with the law-enforcement agencies.”