The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday announced the formation of a committee to look into the demands of inclusion of Ladakh in the 6th Schedule of the Constitution. The decision was taken in a meeting held between the Ladakhi delegation and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The committee will be headed by Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy and will include representatives from the MHA, MPs of Ladakh, chairman of autonomous council of Ladakh and Kargil and certain members, who will be nominated by the apex body of People’s Movement for 6th schedule.
As per the delegation, which met the home minister today, the mandate of the committee will be a “constitutional safeguard for Ladakh on demography, ethnicity, language, culture, environment and job reservations.” The committee’s recommendations are expected in the next two months.
Thupstan Chhewang, former MP and leader of the delegation expressed hopes of positive recommendations from the committee. “The home minister has been very positive right from the beginning and today’s meeting, the manner in which he conducted, we have no reason to believe that he will not ensure full protection. We are expecting full constitutional protection for Ladakh,” he said.
The 10-member delegation had former MPs Thiksay Rinpoche and Thupstan Chhewang, former BJP minister Chering Dorjay, Leh chief executive councillor Tashi Gyalson and sitting BJP MP and Ladakh unit president Jamyang Tsering Namgyal.
A year after getting the status of union territory, there has been a growing demand in Ladakh for constitutional safeguards to preserve the unique culture and identity of the region. The demand gained momentum with the holding of election to the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh, which incidentally was the first democratic exercise in the union territory after being carved out of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kahmir in August 2019.
Lt Governor R K Mathur has time and again assured the people about protection of culture, land, environment and jobs.
A shadow of uncertainty hung over the LAHDC-Leh polls when an amalgam of various political, religious and social organizations assembled under the banner of Peoples Movement for Sixth Schedule for Ladakh (PMSSL) in September and announced a boycott of the elections to press for its various demands including extending the Sixth Schedule to Ladakh. However, a timely intervention by Union Home Minister Amit Shah led to the withdrawal of the boycott call and successful conclusion of the elections in October. The BJP won clear majority in the polls, securing 15 out of 26 seats leaving Congress at second spot with nine seats.
After the initial round of talks with the home minister in Delhi in September before withdrawing the boycott call, PMSSL headed by former Ladakh MP Thupstan Chhewang stepped up its activities back in the union territory and reached out to the leadership in Kargil to garner their support for the demand. Viewed as a significant development, the apex-body of PMSSL and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) leadership decided to fight together any law which would be considered against the interests of the people of the union territory.
The decision was taken at a joint meeting on December 2, a first of its kind between the representatives of the two bodies. The people in Leh have been demanding inclusion of Ladakh in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to safeguard their culture and identity, the KDA had opposed the union territory status to the region and has raised the demand for statehood for Ladakh. In an interactive session organized by PMSSL in Leh on Tuesday, Chhewang said they will approach KDA to join their delegation to meet the home minister on January 5.
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