The entire Kargil unit of the National Conference (NC) has resigned, citing pressure from the party leadership to support the INDIA bloc candidate for the Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency, which votes on May 20. Underlying this move is a yearning for representation in Kargil, which feels ignored as the INDIA bloc chooses a candidate from Leh again for the Ladakh ticket. As part of the seat-sharing agreement between the NC and Congress, Ladakh has gone to the Congress, which nominated Tsering Namgyal. However, a day prior, the Kargil units of both parties had announced NC district president Haji Mohammad Hanifa Jan as a consensus candidate. This led to speculation of another fracture in the INDIA bloc, after the NC and PDP went their separate ways in Kashmir, with both fielding candidates for the three seats in the Valley. However, NC president Farooq Abdullah issued a whip to the party’s Ladakh chapter directing them to support the Congress candidate, Namgyal. Hours later, NC additional general secretary Qamar Ali Akhoon held a press cofnanference announcing the en masse resignation of the party's Kargil unit, and support for Hanifa Jan. In a letter to Farooq, Akhoon stated, “As the party insists we act against the interest of the people. we are compelled to resign. This letter may be considered the mass resignation of all party functionaries from the primary membership of the J&K National Conference.” What lies at the heart of the NC Kargil unit's protest? In the last five general elections since 1999, the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat has been represented by candidates from the NC, once by Independent candidate Thupstan Chhewang, who is now associated with the BJP, and more recently by the BJP's Jamyang Tsering Namgyal. Four of the five times, the MP has been from the Buddhist-dominated Leh region. The last time a candidate from the Muslim-dominated Kargil region was elected was in 1999, when former NC leader Hassan Khan, belonging to Silmoo, won as an Independent. How has the BJP come to dominate Ladakh's politics? Thupstan Chhewang, a BJP member from Leh, won the Ladakh MP seat in 2004 and 2014. He has also served as the president of the Ladakh Buddhist Association, the most influential religious body in the region, and was the Chief Executive Councillor (CEC) of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh, before being elected as MP. He was also at the forefront of the demand for UT status for Ladakh. In 2018, when Ladakh was still a part of J&K, the erstwhile state was swept by protests in the wake of the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani. As the PDP-BJP government fell and J&K came under Central rule, Chhewang resigned from the BJP. In the general elections of 2019, the BJP again won the Ladakh seat, with its candidate, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, a resident of Leh, becoming one of the youngest MPs in the country. Namgyal had also served as the CEC of the LAHDC, Leh, earlier. BJP candidate Tashi Gyalson is also the current CEC of the LAHDC, Leh. What has it meant on the ground? The last 10 years of representation from Ladakh are seen on the ground as, essentially, a representation of Leh in Parliament and not Kargil. Of the voters for the Ladakh seat in this election, 95,928 belong to Kargil, and 88,875 to Leh. The two regions are demographically different and politically at odds, converging only recently over the core issue of seeking protections under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution for Ladakh. Even before the revocation of Article 370 and splitting of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories – J&K and Ladakh – Leh had sought separation from J&K’s administrative setup. But Kargil remained against the move. However, while the August 2019 revocation of Article 370 initially saw protests only in Kargil, the celebrations and hopes on the Leh side have also dried up, with fears growing of “loss of culture and land to outsiders.” Why would the Centre not want unrest in Ladakh? Given that India shares an uneasy border with China in Ladakh, a restive population in the Union territory is untenable for the Centre. With these considerations in mind, the Union Home Ministry had constituted a High Powered Committee in December last year to consider Ladakh's demands. However, discussions hit an impasse in February this year over the alleged refusal of the ministry to agree to the inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, granting it more autonomous powers. Incidentally, one of the key demands before the committee is the creation of separate parliamentary constituencies for Kargil and Leh. Professor Siddiq Wahid, Distinguished Professor at Shiv Nadar University and former vice-chancellor of the Islamic University of Science & Technology in Kashmir, who hails from Ladakh, says that Kargil’s complaints about not getting “consistent, Kargil-specific issues representation in the Lok Sabha as a UT are not without merit.” Furthermore, he says, Ladakh being a border region, “it is important that the unity between Leh and Kargil. be preserved.” “So, at this juncture, the best-case scenario would be to have two MPs for the Ladakh UT. There is nothing in the Constitution that says Ladakh cannot have two MPs. Also, there is some relevance to the apprehension that Leh cannot represent Kargil, and vice-versa.” What do leaders have to say? Speaking to The Indian Express, Hanifa Jan said that four years after the bifurcation of J&K, people are still seeking safeguards for the tribal culture of the region. “The people are angry. The UT setup is not agreeable and the people are feeling stifled.” A candidate from Leh means preference for developmental works remains with Leh, Hanifa said, adding: “At this point, however, what is more important is that Ladakh remains united above party lines and politics.” Hanifa said that as far as the NC and Congress go, “they are together in Kargil and are working to safeguard the future of the people of the region.” Sajjad Kargili, a political activist from Kargil who contested the last MP election, losing to the BJP’s Namgyal, withdrew his nomination papers this time in the interest of unity and is backing Hanifa Jan. He said this “unity” is crucial because traditionally, the Muslim vote in Kargil would split because of Independents in the fray, giving an edge to the candidate from Leh. “One of the reasons representation from Kargil is important this time is because Kargil’s grievances for over a decade have not been given a hearing in Parliament. Whether it is our border issues, education, or closure of roads, it is not discussed anywhere,” he added. He also raised the issue of Shia Muslims, saying they have little to no representation in Parliament. “Kargil is the only region in the country that can provide representation to nearly 5 crore Shias in the country. So it is about the Ladakh identity, but also the Shia identity of the people of Kargil.”
