Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk on Thursday said he was disappointed with how talks between Ladakh's key leaders and the MHA sub-committee in New Delhi. Taking a dig at the meeting, Wangchuk shared an old clip from popular comedian Jaspal Bhatti's show and said that hardly anything new happened during the talks.
Wangchuk, in a post on X on Thursday, said leaders of the Apex Body of Leh (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) would hold a press conference at 4 pm at Ladakh Bhavan in New Delhi. He said the leaders were “rather disappointed” by the sub-committee-level meeting held in New Delhi on September 9.
The meeting was convened by the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Wednesday over Ladakh’s demands for statehood and constitutional safeguards.
“There was hardly anything new beyond the last meeting four months ago... No draft prepared by MHA to discuss, no response on the list of Non-negotiables Ladakh had sent a month ago, not even an assurance of not doing any major irreversible restructuring of local governance, land transfer policies etc before a legitimate democratic Assembly is in place...,” Wangchuk said.
{{/usCountry}}“There was hardly anything new beyond the last meeting four months ago... No draft prepared by MHA to discuss, no response on the list of Non-negotiables Ladakh had sent a month ago, not even an assurance of not doing any major irreversible restructuring of local governance, land transfer policies etc before a legitimate democratic Assembly is in place...,” Wangchuk said.
{{/usCountry}}He said the only major outcome of the meeting was “perhaps to fix the next meeting date... in October”. “This is why we're reminded of famous comedian Jaspal Bhatti's meetings today,” Wangchuk said, sharing a clip from Bhatti's Flop Show.
What the Bhatti clip showed
The clip shared by Wangchuk shows an office where officials spend hours in meetings discussing the crisis, only to announce, “Aaj to kamaal hi ho gaya. Unanimously ek decision hua... Next meeting ki date fix ho gayi hai!” (What a remarkable thing happened today. A decision was taken unanimously... the date for the next meeting has been fixed)
Wangchuk appeared to draw a parallel with the Ladakh talks, where the next meeting was fixed for October.
'No forward movement'
The sub-committee level talks convened by the union ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Wednesday over Ladakh’s demands for statehood and constitutional safeguards under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution failed to make headway, with participants from the LAB and KDA calling it “very disappointing”.
The MHA had called the meeting in Delhi to discuss the four key demands of the LAB and KDA. The talks were considered significant by the two bodies as they anticipated some forward movement after the minutes of the May 22 meeting were signed off on July 3 in Leh by the MHA and the two agitating bodies.
However, co-chairman of the LAB and former minister Chering Dorjay Lakrook said: “There was not much headway. They (MHA officials) only reiterated the May 22 minutes of the meeting and there was no forward movement”.
“We were anticipating a concrete draft proposal from the MHA, which had to be deliberated upon by us before giving our reaction to the government on it but nothing of this sort happened. We conveyed our disappointment to the officials in writing,” he said.
Dorjay said the MHA officials have assured them to hold the next meeting in Kargil during first week of October.
Wangchuk further alleged that the September 9 meeting was intended to divert attention from the Leh to Kargil Padyatra march that was to begin on September 10.
“As we had guessed this meeting on 9th Sept seems to be just a red herring to distract Ladakh from the massive Leh to Kargil Padyatra march that was to start from 10th Sept,” he said.
“Trust is diminishing distrust is growing unfortunately,” Wangchuk added.
(With inputs from Ravi Krishnan Khajuria and Mir Ehsan)