In a blow to the government's efforts to end protests in Ladakh over the rights of the Union Territory, the main organisations spearheading the movement Saturday said they would not attend any meetings of the high-powered committee formed by the Centre on the matter. Representatives of the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) and the Apex Body Leh (ABL), who met in Jammu, rejected the committee over “the absence of a clear mandate”. The Union Home Ministry had announced formation of the high-powered committee on January 2, after two years of sustained protests in the region seeking safeguards for the people of Ladakh. A resolution passed at Saturday's meeting said the organisations “decided not to accept the formation of the high-powered committee and attend any meeting conducted under the aegis of the committee as the said committee has not been mandated to discuss issues raised by the ABL and the KDA”. Further, both organisations resolved to participate in any meeting held by a committee “which is empowered” to discuss the four issues they said were paramount - statehood for the UT of Ladakh, constitutional safeguards under the Sixth Schedule to protect the interests of the tribal people of Ladakh, formation of a Public Service Commission and reservation of jobs for the youth of Ladakh, and the creation of two separate parliamentary constituencies for Leh and Kargil. The mandate of the Centre's 17-member high-powered committee is addressing the question of “ensuring the protection of land and employment for the people of Ladakh”. However, it is vague on the key demands of the protesters. The panel is headed by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, and includes Ladakh Lieutenant Governor R K Mathur, its sole MP (J T Namgyal of the BJP), chairmen of the two autonomous hill councils governing Leh and Kargil districts respectively, and Joint Secretary of J&K and Ladakh Affairs in the Union Home Ministry, among others. Saturday's meeting “strongly objected to the composition” of the high-powered committee, saying the government had “arbitrarily excluded and included members without consultation”. The ABL and KDA demanded that all the names proposed by them in 2021 for such a committee be included. They also questioned the exclusion of any representative of the Sunni community (a minority in the Shia-dominated UT). While the Leh district is Buddhist-dominated, Kargil is majority Muslim. The ABL and KDA members also resolved that the agitation for resolution of their four main concerns shall continue till these demands are fulfilled, and would be intensified in the coming year. They announced a protest at Jammu on January 15, followed by a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi in the third week of February. Speaking to The Indian Express earlier, Sajjad Kargili of the KDA, who is part of the Centre's panel, had said that with the abrogation of Article 370 matter in the Supreme Court, there was little they could do about it. On criticism regarding the panel, he had said he was willing to give it a chance, calling the committee an “opportunity” and “a window opened by the Government of India but, the focus will be the four-point agenda”.
