PM Modi has gone silent on Ladakh, like Manipur earlier. It’s a bigger blunder

Amit Shah should have been better informed about public sentiment in Ladakh, given that the party lost the 2024 Lok Sabha election to an Independent after winning in 2014 and 2019.

Ladakh residents fear that without constitutional safeguards, outsiders can occupy their land, leaving the already fragile ecology of the region at risk due to 'industrial lobbies and mining' and 'unchecked tourism', and that the tribal community’s interests will continue to be overlooked | Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

It has been a fortnight since four persons, including a Kargil war veteran, were killed and dozens were injured in police firing in Ladakh.

This highly sensitive border region is simmering and smouldering with frustration and rage. Heavy security deployment has ensured—for now, at least—that such sentiments don’t boil over. The man they revere the most, climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, remains lodged in a Jodhpur jail under the stringent National Security Act. People of Ladakh have always been so patriotic and peace-loving. It requires special talent in our politicians to make Leh’s Tibetan Buddhists so belligerent. And a genius of a policymaker to pursue methods that run the risk of alienating the population of a sensitive border region.

So, how are those running our country dealing with the situation? No surprise here—with loud silence. We already saw it during the Manipur crisis. The police firing that killed four persons in Leh happened on 24 September. Look at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s X (formerly Twitter) timeline that day. He offered deepest condolences on the sad demise of the Grand Mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, saying, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Kingdom and its people in this moment of grief.” He also condoled the death of Kannada novelist SL Bhyrappa.

Then there were posts about Cabinet decisions, auction of gifts, PRAGATI meeting, Bihar’s development, etc. Not a word about the killings in Leh. Not even an appeal to maintain peace. The next day, on 25 September, Modi’s posts were about Navaratri, Deendayal Upadhyay’s birth anniversary, his addresses to the UP International Trade Show and World Food India Programme, etc. Not a word on Ladakh the next day either. Or at any other time in the next 10 days.

Also look at Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s timeline on X. The Home Ministry justified the police firing in a press release that day, blaming Sonam Wangchuk for instigating the people with his “provocative speeches”. It happened at the site where Wangchuk and others were on a hunger strike for a fortnight, demanding statehood for Ladakh and extension of the Sixth Schedule, among others.

A mob left the venue and attacked a political party (read Bharatiya Janata Party) office and a government office and also set these offices on fire, attacked the security personnel, and torched a police vehicle, said the ministry, adding that the police fired in self-defence. Such a serious incident in a region bordering the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China must have alarmed Home Minister Shah and the entire security establishment.

Titular Home Minister

On 24 September, the day of the Ladakh incident, Shah’s individual X  handle had pictures of him watching garba in Gujarat, details of Cabinet decisions, including Rs 6,014 crore gift to poll-bound Bihar, etc. He also condoled the death of Kannada novelist SL Bhyrappa. Not a word on what happened in Ladakh, though. The next day, he posted pictures and videos of his address at an award function in Mumbai and of him planting a “sindoor” sapling, etc. The following day, he was in West Bengal and then in Bihar the day after. Not a word on Ladakh in any of these posts. 

Modi didn’t say a word on Manipur for 10 weeks after the violence broke out there in May 2023—not until a video clip showing a mob parading two women naked went viral, drawing condemnation from across the world. And he took over two years after the incident to visit the state. Shah was relatively prompt. Twenty-five days after the violence broke out, he visited Imphal and spent four days there. That it had little impact on the ground is another matter.

One cannot compare the Manipur and Ladakh incidents. The Manipur tragedy is enormous. The state remains geographically divided along ethnic lines, with Kukis and Meiteis staying behind what have virtually become enemy lines. When it comes to national security and geo-strategy, the crisis in Ladakh has bigger dimensions. Manipur shares the international boundary with Myanmar. Ladakh  shares the LAC with China. No matter what suddenly makes our foreign policy establishment so optimistic about our ties with China now— barely two months after the Deputy Chief of Army Staff’s revelations about how China was providing “live inputs” on Indian deployment and “all possible support” to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor—Ladakh remains a super sensitive zone.

Familiar script

Shah’s political visits to states like West Bengal or Bihar when Ladakh was boiling are a given. He is the one-man army who has pushed frontiers for the BJP. But a visit to Leh and a few words of assurance and appeal for peace would have worked as a salve to their wounds. The Centre needed to talk to, not at, those fiercely patriotic people of the cold desert. The government has messed up the situation, instead. A familiar script is playing out on social media— the foreign hand conspiracy theories. Look at the concerted attempt to discredit and vilify Wangchuk for visiting Pakistan in February. Senior journalist Nirupama Subramanian, who also attended the conference, organised by the Dawn media group, came to his defence, explaining that it was about climate change. 

“Let me tell you that in his presentation, Wangchuk, who has been a supporter of the BJP for its doing away of Article 370, and making Ladakh a separate UT, had nothing but praise for Prime Minister Modi,” she wrote on X. “No one in the audience seemed to know how famous he was… It was only after I mentioned to my friend and journalist @HamidMirPAK about the Three Idiots link that he alerted his network, and TV crews started buzzing around him,” she wrote. This hasn’t stopped the slander campaign, though.

A day after the violence in Ladakh, the home ministry cancelled the license of his NGO, Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh, citing violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. Guess the amount involved. It’s Rs 3.35 lakh. Obviously, it’s not about the amount. A violation is a violation. The authenticity of the allegation aside, its timing doesn’t pass the sniff test. Many other questions are begging for an explanation from Shah. Why did the BJP promise extension of the Sixth Schedule to Ladakh if it had no intention of granting it?

The Centre had its last round of talks with the Ladakh Apex Body in May. While the people were getting agitated about a perceived dilly-dallying tactic, the Centre should have been aware of it. Shah, the BJP chief strategist, should have been better informed about the public sentiments, given that the party lost the 2024 Lok Sabha election to an Independent after winning in 2014 and 2019. A master strategist should have seen the resentment building. If provocative speeches were made at the venue of the fortnight-long protests on 24 September, where was our intelligence? How could we be caught unawares like this in Ladakh, especially after 527 soldiers had to sacrifice their lives to reclaim the Kargil heights 26 years ago?

We haven’t learned lessons from our lapses. There is also a question about people getting shot in their chests and heads in Leh on 24 September. If a mob turns violent, the police have a standard operating procedure for crowd control, using the minimum force. No lathicharge, no tear gas, no rubber bullets! There are many questions about the way the Centre has handled the Ladakh protests. Modi-Shah’s silence doesn’t give us an answer or insight.

This brings me back to the column I wrote in November last year. It was titled “India needs a full-time Home Minister. No more puppet BJP president, please”.

Amit Shah is a very competent administrator, but he has to run the party as well. The geo-strategic situation has become more complicated since then, making it absolutely compulsory for the Modi government to have a full-time Home Minister and a full-time BJP president, not a titular one. With only 24 hours in a day, it’s too much to expect Amit Shah to do justice to both roles together. 

DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint. He tweets @dksingh73. Views are personal.

(Edited by Ratan Priya)