The arrest of activist Sonam Wangchuk was an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party to divert attention from its “abysmal failure” to maintain law and order, and ensure security of life and property, in Ladakh, the Congress said on Friday.

“The crux of the issue is that the BJP has deceived the people of Ladakh for years,” said Jairam Ramesh, the Opposition party’s communications chief.

Wangchuk was arrested in Leh on Friday, two days after four persons were killed in police firing during protests seeking statehood for Ladakh.

The police firing and violence broke out on Wednesday during protests demanding statehood for Ladakh and its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Demonstrators clashed with and threw stones at the police, and set fire to the Bharatiya Janata Party office and a police vehicle.

The Union government has claimed that the violence was incited by Wangchuk’s “provocative statements”.

Following the violence, a curfew was ordered in Leh by the district administration. After Wangchuk’s arrest, internet services were suspended in Leh.

Congress leader Ramesh said on Friday that the BJP had “promised the region Sixth Schedule status in the 2020 Leh Hill Council Elections and has gone back on that promise with a vengeance”.

The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution guarantees protection for land and nominal autonomy for citizens in designated tribal-dominated areas. In Ladakh, more than 97% of the population belongs to the Scheduled Tribes.

“It claimed that it gave Ladakh autonomy from the larger Jammu and Kashmir but has really ended all semblance of democracy in the Union Territory,” he said on social media.

The Narendra Modi government “cannot brush these issues away or suppress them” by arresting Wangchuk, the Congress leader said, adding that it must engage with the people of Ladakh “in sincerity and with alacrity”.

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Kumar Jha said that the arrest of Wangchuk under the National Security Act was “not just a headline but a disturbing marker of where India stands today”.

The arrest signals that “what was once feared as the creeping shadow of an Orwellian state has already settled firmly into the fabric of governance,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.

“This is not just about his arrest alone but the normalisation of extraordinary laws, meant for rare and extreme situations, being used to stifle dissent…” he said on social media. “Citizens are not just being judged for what they do, but for what they dare to think and say against authority.”

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that Wangchuk’s arrest was unfortunate, and accused the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government of backtracking on its promises.

“Promises were made with the people there…” The Indian Express quoted Abdullah as having told reporters. “I don’t understand what compulsion does the central government have to backtrack after making promises.”

The Aam Aadmi Party said that by arresting Wangchuk for raising his voice for the rights of Ladakh, the Modi government “has made it clear that it has fully descended into dictatorship”.

Also read: Who has the right to protest in Modi’s India?

On August 5, 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcated the state into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

The lack of a legislature in Ladakh has led to increasing insecurities among the residents of the Union Territory about their land, nature, resources and livelihoods and stoked fears that the region’s cultural identity and fragile ecosystem may be in jeopardy.

In this backdrop, civil society groups have been demanding that Ladakh be included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution so that its identity can be protected.

The inclusion of Ladakh in the Sixth Schedule would allow for the creation of autonomous development councils to govern land, public health and agriculture.

Also read: Ladakh violence: How government inaction on its promises on autonomy has fuelled frustration

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