Authored By: Netal Sharma, B.A.LL.B, P.E.S. Modern Law College, Pune, Maharashtra, & Co-Authored By: Tanishka Kogta, B.A.LL.B, P.E.S. Modern Law College, Pune, Maharashtra

5^th August, 2019, a historical day for India when the people of Ladakh, specifically Leh have gathered on the streets, dancing in all joy, for celebrating it as their 1^st ever Independence Day after their separation from Jammu and Kashmir. And now, today is the day when the whole of Ladakh have gathered on the streets of Ladakh, but this time for protests. This gives rise to a huge question that what actually changed in the meantime that the people who were celebrating the day when the bill got passed in the Rajya Sabha have joined the people who were in dissent and are even regretting the celebration they had.

The history of Ladakh’s demand for statehood and autonomous status is deeply ingrained in its distinct cultural, geographical and political recognition. Situated in the northmost region of India, Ladakh has always been an important location for India and the government, for reasons like, cultural distinctness, mass tribal population, geographical location, political status and a few more.

Over the years there has been a fear among the people of Ladakh regarding the protection of their rights and development of the region, which has eventually resulted in them demanding for statehood and autonomy since the 1930s. This demand gained momentum for the first time in 1964 with an organised agitation against Kashmir’s dominance. In 1980s, these protests became much larger demanding for a union territory status, which further aggravated during the years 2002-2003[1]. The main concerns behind their demand were that the development in the area of Ladakh was constantly neglected by the succeeding governments of Jammu and Kashmir and they were being dominated by their politicians.

On 8^th February 2019, as a result of the increasing unrest among the locals of Ladakh, it became a separate Revenue and Administrative Division within the state of state of Jammu and Kashmir, and was granted its own Divisional Commissioner and Inspector General of Police, which was previously a part of the Kashmir Division. Leh and Kargil were to jointly serve as the divisional headquarters (as a result of protests), with each having an Additional Divisional Commissioner who would assist the Divisional Commissioner and Inspector General of Police.[2]

Thus, considering how important Ladakh is for the geopolitical relations of India, in August 2019 the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 was passed thereby abrogating Article 370 and 35A. Further, under Section 85 of the Act a committee was setup for apportionment of assets between the two union territories, namely Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, and to make arrangements related to some other important issues as mentioned in the said section. The act came into effect on 31^st October 2019 and Ladakh was finally reconstituted into a union territory and separated from Jammu and Kashmir.

We saw above how Ladakh was reconstituted into a union territory, but what exactly is a union territory? A Union Territory is an administrative division governed, partly or wholly, by the central government of India. Articles 239 to 247 in Part VII of the Indian Constitution deal with the Union Territories. Although this term has evolved over time, as it was introduced by the British.

In the year 1875, an entity named the ‘Scheduled District’ was formed by the British which later came to be known as the ‘Chief Commissioner Provinces’. Then in 1950, when the Provinces and the Princely States were classified into 4 different kinds of states namely, Part 1 States, Part B States, Part C States and Part D States. As a result, the Chief Commissioner Provinces got divided into Part C and D States.[3]

Thereafter through the 7^th Constitutional Amendment Act and State Reorganization Act of 1956, they came to be known as the Union Territories. The criteria for determining a Union Territory are as follows:

• Areas which are so small in size or unstable financially;
• Areas which are culturally or linguistically too different from the neighboring areas;
• Some areas which were not under the control of government of India;
• Political and administrative consideration;
• Special treatment and care;
• Strategically important region.

Since Ladakh was fitting in the above-mentioned criteria, it was reconstituted into a Union Territory without Legislature, and since then it has experienced many positive changes.

Five years down the line, Ladakh’s situation has changed a lot. It has been a centre for trade and commerce from a very long time, but presently around 50% of its GNP is dependent on tourism. Starting with the infrastructural development in the area, around 750.21 kms of roads, 29 new bridges and 30 new helipads were built, including the ongoing projects like Zoji-La Tunnel and Kargil-Zanskar Road have led to increase in the connectivity of the area. While infrastructure encourages economy in the area, it is the capital expenditure that leads to development of infrastructure. Ladakh being a sparsely populated region needs capital investment to enhance its development. As per Ladakh datasets released be the Ministry of Home Affairs there has been an exponential growth in the capital expenditure which leads to the conclusion that the government is prioritizing capital expenditure over other expenditures, having majority of its share in the power generation sector, showing positive inclination towards infrastructural development.

Tourism sector being the largest sector supporting the GNP of the Union Territory has also observed a growth. But despite being the largest sector, the Ladakh Tourist Trade Alliance imposed an indirect ban on foreign investments resulting a boost in the local cottage industry.[4]

Despite development in these sectors, unemployment is rising rapidly in the region. As per data almost 26.5% of the graduated youth was found to be unemployed, marking a 16% rise in the unemployment between the years 2021-22 and 2022-23. Also, the share allotted for education sector seems to be quite irregular and the growing unemployment of the region demands for more allocation of resources in the education sector for development of the people.[5]

THE DEMANDS OF PEOPLE OF LADAKH

As a result of the above in-satisfactions, i.e. growing unemployment, irregular allotment of resources in various sectors, the tribals fearing being exposed to the development due to the cultural and demographic differences, and insecurity among the locals of the outsiders getting better opportunities, the locals of Ladakh have started a movement, spearheaded by the two socio-political organisations of Ladakh, namely Apex Body Leh (ABL) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) and supported by Magsaysay Award winner Sonam Wangchuk, in view of pursuing their four main demands.

The primary demands of the people of Ladakh are as follows:

• Statehood for Ladakh: One of the most prominent demands of Ladakh is that of statehood. Statehood basically is the condition of having one’s own government within the country. This condition of statehood is fulfilled when under Article 3 of the Indian Constitution the Parliament of India on recommendation of the President of India, by law, forms a new state, by separating or uniting the region of a state, or by increasing or decreasing the area of a state or by altering the boundary or name of a state or union territory. However, the bill shall be referred by the President to the legislature of that particular state.

In Ladakh’s case, considering that it never had its own government, as it was first a part of Jammu and Kashmir and since 2019 it is governed directly by the Centre, the people of Ladakh now feels the need to have its own government and be converted into a state. There are various factors why Ladakh feels it should be granted statehood. Firstly, since the region has distinct geographical, cultural, and socio-economic characteristics, the people always felt that having greater administrative autonomy through statehood would result in such unique challenges being addressed more efficiently and would also safeguard the tribal and cultural heritage of the region. Secondly, considering how strategically important Ladakh’s region is for India’s geopolitical relations and security, they feel that statehood would assure better security management in the border areas. The organizations also argue that having an autonomous state status would ensure more development programmes concentrated on the region’s infrastructure, education, healthcare, tourism, economic needs, etc. Lastly, it is demanded by the organizations that through statehood the people of Ladakh would have their own governance and political representation.

• Safeguards under the 6^th Schedule: The demand for safeguard of the union territory under the 6^th Schedule stands as the second demand by the people of Ladakh, which was promised by the present union government in 2019 itself during the general elections and while writing off Article 370 as well.

The 6th Schedule was passed by the Constituent Assembly in the year 1949 on the basis of reports given by the Bardoloi Committee. As per the reports submitted by the committee, the tribal groups residing in the region were not developed, thus requiring a different and proper system of administration to be formulated. Along with this, the customs and practices of the tribal groups are quite different from rest of the population and it seemed to be necessary to safeguard their interest and themselves from exploitation. The 6^th Schedule provides for special provisions in the tribal areas of these four states, under Articles 244(2) and 275(1) of the Constitution:

• Meghalaya
• Mizoram
• Tripura
• Assam

The tribal areas of these states have further been constituted as autonomous districts, having formulated Autonomous Regional Council and Autonomous District Councils to exercise executive, legislative and judicial powers. These district and regional councils can only make laws on certain specified matters, other matters being in control of the executive power of the state.

Despite being formulated for the development of the specified tribal areas, there stand certain drawbacks in the 6^th Schedule. One being the creation of multiple power centres causing conflict of interests in the district councils and state legislature. Also, the inner line permit, despite being necessary for the safeguard of the tribal people living in the area, is somewhat hampering the development in the region.[6]

Ladakh is rich in cultural heritage having more than 90% of its population as tribal population, with Balti Beda, Bot, Brokpa, Changpa, Garra, Mon and Purigpa constituting the primary Scheduled Tribes residing in the region. National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), established by insertion of Article 338A in the Constitution, which was formulated primarily to advice about the planning for the development of the Scheduled Tribes along with monitoring the safeguard of their interest, has also recommended for the inclusion of Ladakh in the sixth schedule for the protection of the cultural, linguistic and land rights of such a huge indigenous population of the tribals.[7]

• Reservations of Jobs: The third demand of the people of Ladakh is of the reservation of jobs for the local youth, thereby ensuring equitable access to the economic resources and opportunities. Reservation is a system which allows the government, central or state, to set reserved quotas in educational institutions, employments, political bodies, promotions, etc., for the socially and educationally backward classes of India. The government is provided by such a power by the Constitution of India.

The people of Ladakh demand on establishing a separate Ladakh Public Service Commission seeking exclusive recruitment rights, which will specifically ensure jobs for the local residents at the gazetted posts and even the lower-level jobs. This will further result in locals having power over the matters of the region of Ladakh which will ensure better handling of local matters and development of region without the environment being harmed, as bureaucrats appointed from within Ladakh will have enhanced understanding of the problems of that region and will know how these problems are to be solved as compared to those appointed by the central government from outside Ladakh.[8]

• Creation of separate Parliamentary Constituencies: Parliamentary Constituencies are the geographical divisions made within the country to constitute Lok Sabha; 543 constituencies have been made in our country. Further a Member of Parliament is chosen from each of the constituencies. Basically, the MPs which are elected in the constituencies act as the representatives from the respected states from which they have been elected. The number of seats in Lok Sabha allotted to a constituency is proportionate to the population of the region. Further the delimitation is undertaken into practice in order to provide equal representation to equal segments of population.[9]

Observing the history and demands of Ladakh what we can see that the people of Ladakh have always felt left out by the government. Even before the enactment of the Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019, Ladakh and Jammu have experienced less amount of attention as compared to Kashmir; which the data of the expenditure of the funds allocated by the government also proves. The main reason behind this seems to be that the ruling government was that of Kashmir’s; also, it was deemed to be necessary for the security reasons.

But even when the Ladakh got its separate identity from Kashmir, only a single separate Parliamentary Constituency has been formulated for the UT. So, for equal representation in the Lok Sabha for the region of Leh and Kargil, the UT is putting forward the demand of creation of separate Parliamentary Constituencies.

LADAKH’S STATUS QUO

As of today, the situation in Ladakh is still the same, as people continue to protest against the Union Government demanding for statehood and protection under the 6^th Schedule. Even after several talks conducted between the protesting bodies and the committee formed by the central government no concrete result has emerged with respect to the demands of the people of Ladakh. Mr. Amit Shah, the Minister of Home Affairs for India amidst these talks has proposed of providing the people of Ladakh with Article 371-like protections, as currently the government feels that they cannot go as far as providing with protections under 6^th Schedule.[10]

 Article 371 of the Indian Constitution was introduced mainly with the view of protecting the interests of backward and indigenous classes residing in various regions of the country and to protect their economic and cultural identity, which further ensures that the law is not compromised at any cost in these regions. However, the people of Ladakh are in no mood of accepting anything less than the 6^th schedule.

OPINION

One of the reasons behind the celebration of the people of Ladakh was because of the hopes of getting a separate identity and proper attention from the government upon its separation from Jammu and Kashmir. But as the years passed by their hopes crunched and the feeling of alienation of the people continued to exist. While the latest amendment, the Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2024 has successfully failed to de-notify the four tribes which do not even constitute the part of Ladakh from Ladakh, on the other hand earlier there used to be 4 constituency seats for Ladakh which have now reduced to a single seat; threatening the identity of Ladakh. Hence, their demand of separate parliamentary constituency for Leh and Kargil seems to be fair for proper representation of the tribes of the region.

Further, if we see from a democratic point of view, which is the essence of India, if statehood is granted to Ladakh, then it will result in practice of democracy in the truest sense as the people of Ladakh will be able to elect leaders of their own choice to govern their region and enjoy autonomy. However, considering its current fragile situation and how important it is geographically for the nation’s geopolitical relations with the neighbouring countries, granting statehood will not be the most appropriate step. Thus, in our opinion at least for now, that Ladakh is not financially stable to have autonomy of powers, it should be governed directly under the central government.

However, their demand for establishing Ladakh Public Service Commission should be fulfilled, as it will ensure that the gazetted jobs are reserved for the local youth of Ladakh. Prior to its severance from Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh was part of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission, but after 2019 Ladakh was excluded from the Jammu and Kashmir PSC through ‘domiciles of J&K’ criteria, and since then has not been given its separate Public Service Commission. This has resulted in the youth of Ladakh getting very less opportunities for recruitment in the gazetted offices. They also cited the example of how even after Punjab and Haryana’s bifurcation in 1966, they had a joint PSC till they set up their own PSCs, and questioned why the same could not be done with Ladakh. Thus, we feel that if Ladakh is given its own PSC, it will ensure recruitment of the local youth as gazetted officers and therefore the management of the region will be better understood and carried upon.

Also, the public is adamant on the promises made by government in the election manifestos of the parliamentary elections of 2019 and in the Leh Hill Council elections of 2020. The BJP government allegedly promised the people of Ladakh the inclusion of region in the 6^th Schedule along with providing constitutional safeguards. Although including these in the election manifestos the government has not taken any steps in the direction of fulfilling the promises. But in our view despite the promises made, providing them inclusion under sixth schedule would not be the best call to take as of now. Rather the step what the government has contemplated in the recent meeting with the local committees can be an adequate step to take currently.

Considering the above scenario, it will be intriguing to see whether Ladakh’s quest for recognition is achieved or not.

[1] Abhishek De, Ladakh streets erupted in joy in 2019. They are seeing anger now. Here is why, India Today (Feb 07, 2024, 13:15 IST), https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/ladakh-protests-statehood-demand-leh-kargil-tribal-status-sixth-schedule-article-370-2498423-2024-02-07.

[2] PTI, J&K Administration Creates Separate Division for Ladakh, The Wire (Feb 08, 2019), https://thewire.in/government/jk-administration-creates-separate-division-for-ladakh.

[3] Adrija Roychowdhury, Srijana Siri, How the idea of Indian Union territories was conceived and executed, The Indian Express (Dec 23, 2023, 13:41 IST),https://indianexpress.com/article/research/how-the-idea-of-indian-union-territories-was-conceived-and-executed-9078687/.

[4] Aarya Gandre, Fiscal Analysis of recently formed Union Territory: LEH & LADAKH, Tatvita Analysts (June 15, 2023), https://tatvita-analysts.com/fiscal-analysis-of-ladakh/.

[5] Padma Rigzin, More Bureaucracy, Still No Jobs: What’s Really Changed Since Ladakh Became a UT, The Wire (Aug 05, 2020), https://thewire.in/government/ladakh-union-territory-one-year.

[6] Drishti IAS, Indepth – 6th Schedule & ILP, Drishti IAS, https://www.drishtiias.com/pdf/indepth-6th-schedule-and-ilp.pdf.

[7] PIB Delhi, NCST Writes to Union Home Minister & Union Tribal Affairs Minister Conveying Its recommendation to Include Union Territory of Ladakh Under 6th Schedule of Constitution of India, PIB, Government of India (Sept 11, 2019, 5:29 PM), https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1584746.

[8] Sanjeev Pargal, Centre, UT Admn fail to set up PSC for Ladakh even after 2½ years, DAILYEXCELSIOR.com (May 9, 2022), https://www.dailyexcelsior.com/centre-ut-admn-fail-to-set-up-psc-for-ladakh-even-after-2%C2%BD-years/.

[9] State/UT wise seats in the Lok Sabha, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India (March 18, 2009), https://www.mea.gov.in/Uploads/PublicationDocs/19167_State_wise_seats_in_Lok_Sabha_18-03-2009.pdf.

[10] Express News Service, Centre, Ladakh bodies meetings end with no ‘concrete’ results, The Indian Express (March 5, 2024, 07:39 IST), https://indianexpress.com/article/india/centre-ladakh-bodies-meetings-end-with-no-concrete-results-9195813/.

Cite this article as:  

Netal Sharma & Tanishka Kogta, “Ladakh’s Quest for Recognition”, Vol.5 & Issue 5, Law Audience Journal (e-ISSN: 2581-6705), Pages 602 to 613 (02^nd May 2024), available at https://www.lawaudience.com/ladakhs-quest-for-recognition.