Identity politics that swept across the twin districts of the Ladakh region before the 2002 Assembly elections and after is on a considerable ebb this time as the gains have been little for the people, making way for routine politics to return centrestage.
However, the insecurities of their mammoth but thinly-populated region, which mean that Ladakh never finds the same attention as two other regions of the state, Kashmir and Jammu, in addition to the religious and regional cards exploited by a section of politicians and clergy continue to keep the pot simmering.
Prior to 2002, Leh’s Buddhist clergy headed by the Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA) joined hands with the influential elite to almost force all local politicians at a meeting at a prominent gonpa (Buddhist temple) to dissolve their district party units, including those of the region’s two foremost political parties, the Congress and the National Conference, so that they could take a “united” stand for Leh, if not Ladakh’s, which also includes the Muslim-majority Kargil, Union Territory status.
“I was hugely surprised at the development. I have been a diehard Congressman but had to bow to the popular sentiment,” P. Namgyal, a three-term MP and former union minister, told The Tribune.
The Ladakh Union Territory Front (LUTF), which claims to speak for Buddhists, supported two independent candidates, Nawang Rigzin Zora from Leh and Sonam Wangchuk from Nubra. The Buddhist clergy warned their opponents of social and religious boycott and so strong was the wave, fuelled by religious identity, that both were elected unopposed.
Kargil was not far behind as its two main but squabbling Islamic bodies, the Islamia School and the Imam Khomaini Memorial Trust (IKMT), entered the fray. An independent, Haji Nissar Ali, supported by the IKMT, won from Kargil, while the National Conference candidate propped by the Islamia School won in Zanskar, the second Assembly seat from the district. When the NC MLA, Mohd Abas, died, both Islamic bodies, who oppose UT status for Ladakh, joined hands
to send a common candidate to the Assembly.
Cut to campaign for the November 17 elections in both districts for the four Assembly seats, the LUTF is hardly undefeatable in Leh while the National Conference, though supported by the Islamia School, is emerging strong on Kargil’s two seats. LBA president Lobzang Rinchen says it was wrong for it to “mix religion with politics earlier” and they have disassociated from
politics.” Regional passions had put all considerations in a shade. The LUTF said they would get us UT status and deliver Ladakh from being a perennial victim of Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi’s biased politics. We all supported them but their promises remained just that,” Konchok Tsewang, a Congress worker, says.
Zora has decided to contest on the Congress ticket this time and is fighting his one-time mentor in the LUTF, Thupstan Chhewang, who is Ladakh’s present MP and is now contesting the assembly poll. Nubra will also see an animated fight between the Congress and the LUTF, says Namgyal.
“Sentiments have calmed down. People have realised that UT status would come with time and is subject to political developments in Kashmir,” he says. In Kargil, its popular leader Asgar Ali Karbalaie says people want development and their politics is for them. Locals say the LUTF and both Islmic bodies are bound to play divisive religious and regional cards. But it is no longer as effective as the fierce contests on all four seats suggest.
