Activist Wangchuk ends fast after Centre agrees to resume talks
Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk on Monday ended his fast along with others after the Home Ministry assured them that the talks on Ladakh’s demands will be resumed in December.
Prashant Lokhande, Join Secretary, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, met the activists, who were sitting on an indefinite fast at Delhi’s Ladakh Bhawan since October 6, and handed them a letter from the Home Ministry.
The letter said the high-powered committee of the ministry, which was holding talks with representatives from Ladakh, will meet them on December 3. Following this, Wangchuk and his supporters decided to break their fast and called off the sit-in.
“On the 16th day of our fast, I am happy to say that our main appeal has been resolved. Just now, the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, came at the Ladakh Bhawan here and handed me this letter, which says the talks going on between the apex body of Leh and the KDA in Kargil with the Central Government will be resumed soon, by December,” Wangchuk said.
He hoped that the outcome of the talks between the ministry and the Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance, the two socio-political organisations from the two regions of Ladakh, will be positive.
“The talks will be carried out by these bodies and I hope that good outcomes will come, not just for Ladakh but for the whole nation. I just hope that I do not ever again have to do another anshan (fast) for this reason and it will result in a happy ending. I want to, on this occasion, thank everybody who supported us in this effort,” Wangchuk said.
Chering Dorjay Lakruk, president of the Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA), thanked Wangchuk and others who took out a march for the resumption of the talks that were stalled.
“The talks will be resumed now. We have not achieved anything yet. We hope that the talks on our four-point demands will be meaningful,” he said. Ladakh MP Mohmad Haneefa also hoped that the talks will have a meaningful outcome. “We hope that the government will take these talks seriously and our issues will be resolved,” Haneefa said.
