Opinion In Ladakh, Centre’s notifications go a long way in addressing demands of people

Since 2019 and the bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, the leaders from the Union Territory of Ladakh have demanded constitutional protections for land ownership, economic opportunities, preserving tribal cultures and languages, and a more representative government. Each of these clusters of demands is rooted in the unique historical and demographic profile of the region, and the promise — both explicit and implicit — at the time of the abrogation of Article 370 was that they would be addressed. Earlier this week, a slew of notifications by the central government moved the needle significantly on many of the demands from Ladakh, especially around domicile-based government jobs, protection and promotion of languages and quotas. Welcome as they are, these orders should be followed in due course by measures that ensure a deepening of representative democracy in Ladakh and assuage some of the anxieties around land rights.

The Ladakh Civil Services Decentralisation and Recruitment (Amendment) Regulation introduces a domicile requirement for government jobs: To be eligible, a person must have resided in Ladakh for 15 years or appeared in Class X or Class XII examinations in the UT. The Union Territory of Ladakh Reservation (Amendment) Regulation has placed a cap of 85 per cent on reservation, excluding the EWS quota. This, in effect, provides nearly blanket reservation for local people (the UT has a 90 per cent Scheduled Tribe population). The Centre has also recognised English, Hindi, Urdu, Bhoti and Purgi as official languages of the Union Territory, in addition to facilitating other mechanisms for promoting and protecting the region’s culture and heritage. Bhoti and Purgi are spoken by a majority of the population, and their long-delayed recognition has been a demand for many years.

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There is no gainsaying the fact that the Centre and the armed forces have — and will continue to have — a deep interest and presence in Ladakh. The UT borders both Pakistan and China and has been a military flashpoint with both countries — in Kargil with Pakistan in 1999, and the border clashes with China from 2020 to 2024. In addition, vast swathes of land in the region are important for the country’s renewable energy goals. These imperatives, however, cannot negate the underlying principles of democracy. The demand from many in Ladakh was the area’s inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution — like parts of the Northeast — which allows for significant autonomy. The Centre, on its part, has sought to provide protections through its orders. But it does not seem to have engaged with the demand for restrictions on people from outside owning land. Even more glaring in its absence is a greater devolution of powers to the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDCs). Currently, these local elected bodies have no legislative powers and few administrative ones. Ladakh, like the rest of the erstwhile state of J&K, deserves some form of representative government. As the Centre and the local leadership negotiate the next steps on the political architecture for the UT, giving its people a voice should be paramount.