After months of impasse, Ladakh’s high-powered committee to reconvene in ‘last part of January’

On Thursday, the MHA sent an invite for the HPC to reconvene in the last week of January, it has sought “a convenient set of dates” from the members to meet in New Delhi.

A meeting of the HPC was also scheduled on October 6. However, after four locals were killed in a police firing after a protest demonstration in September, the constituent groups refused to engage with the Centre till a set of demands, including a judicial inquiry, were met.

HPC member Sajjad Kargili said: “We hope the forthcoming meeting will substantively address the core aspirations of the people of Ladakh—particularly the demand for statehood, inclusion under the Sixth Schedule, and serious consideration of the draft proposals submitted to the MHA by the Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance”.

He also expressed the hope that the HPC will take up humanitarian concerns, including the continued detention of Sonam Wangchuk and others, as well as the issue of compensation for those injured and the families of those who lost their lives during the unfortunate events of September 24.

Another member, former Leh Chief Executive Councillor Tashi Gyalson thanked the Home Minister for standing with the people of Ladakh.

Since its constitution the HPC has been vital in securing protections for the Ladakhi people that include a 15-year prospective domicile clause. This implies that to qualify as a domicile of Ladakh, a citizen must show continuous residence from 2019 with a 15-year prospective, unlike the domicile clause for J&K, which was implemented retrospectively. In December last year, the HPC also gave Ladakhis a 95 percent quota for locals in government recruitment.

After several rounds of deliberations of HPC, talks came to a halt in March with Ladakh pushing for protections under the Sixth Schedule while and the MHA refusing to concede ground on that front. The two bodies leading the movement for statehood and other protections for the region also met with Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.

Shah, however, stated that it “would not be possible” for the government to accommodate the region’s demand to be included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The Centre is also learnt to have turned down the request for a legislature.

In October, while inviting the groups back to table, Centre had suggested “constitutional guarantees that could have included protections under Article 371” to be brought up for discussion.