Two days after Ladakh violence, activist Sonam Wangchuk arrested

In a massive development, renowned Ladakh activist and leading voice Sonam Wangchuk was arrested on Friday. Wangchuk was arrested by a Ladakh police team led by DGP SD Singh Jamwal, officials said.

The development came two days after Ladakh’s capital Leh, was rocked by violent protests over the demand for statehood and extension of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to the Union Territory. The arrest also followed the Union government’s move on Thursday to cancel the FCRA licence of an NGO linked to Wangchuk for alleged violations related to foreign funding.

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The violent protests on Wednesday were led by supporters of the movement for statehood and the Sixth Schedule for Ladakh. Four people were killed and over 90 others were injured during the violence, which targeted the local BJP office and other official properties.

It was reported that the police took Wangchuk into custody at 2.30 pm just when he was scheduled to hold a virtual press conference. It was not immediately clear on what charges the police arrested Wangchuk.

Conspiracy not revolution, conspirators from outside: Ladakh LG on protest

The Ministry of Home Affairs had on Wednesday night blamed Wangchuk, who is a core member of the Leh Apex Body (LAB), for provocation leading to the violence. LAB, along with the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), have been leading the protests for the past five years to demand statehood for Ladakh.

The violence took place during Wangchuk’s hunger strike in support of the demands. The activist, however, has denied the charges and denounced the violence. Soon after the violence, he also ended his fortnight-long hunger strike on Wednesday.

The MHA, in a statement, said, “Activist Sonam Wangchuk began a hunger strike on September 10, demanding the 6th Schedule and statehood for Ladakh. It is well known that the Government of India has been actively engaged with the Apex Body Leh and the Kargil Democratic Alliance on the same issues. A series of meetings was held with them through the formal channels of the High-Powered Committee, as well as the Sub-committee, and multiple informal meetings with leaders.

Ladakh: Sonam Wangchuk arrested minutes before his ‘Zoom’ press conference

“The process of dialogue through this mechanism has yielded phenomenal results by increasing reservations for the Ladakh scheduled tribe from 45% to 84%, providing 1/3 women’s reservations in the councils, and declaring Bhoti and Purgi as official languages. With this process, the recruitment of 1800 posts was also commenced. However, certain politically motivated individuals were unhappy with the progress made under HPC and have been attempting to sabotage the dialogue process.”

The Home Ministry added that despite many leaders calling for an end to the hunger strike, Wangchuk continued and misled the people through provocative mentions of Arab Spring-style protests and references to the recent Gen Z protests in Nepal.

Alleged FCRA violations

On Thursday night, the MHA said it has cancelled the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) licence of innovator and education reformist Sonam Wangchuk’s Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) over alleged funding violations. Post the cancellation, the Leh-based institute can no longer receive or utilise foreign funding.

According to officials, the decision to cancel the FCRA licence was taken after a review of compliance records. The ministry said Wangchuk, during the financial year 2021-22, had deposited Rs 3.5 lakh into the FCRA account of the association, which violated the section 17 of the Act. The association had said in its clarification that the amount was from the sale proceeds of an old bus procured from the FCRA fund.

Earlier, responding to a probe by the CBI into alleged FCRA violations, Wangchuk said that his organisation did not seek foreign funding because it had no intention of “begging from foreign countries.”

Wangchuk told ANI that the funds were “not foreign donations” but fees for services rendered.

“A day later (after Leh protests), the Home Ministry of India issued a press release naming Sonam Wangchuk in it and blaming him… I had received a notice about a CBI inquiry stating that your organisation received foreign funding even when it did not have an FCRA. We did not get FCRA because we don’t want funds from abroad,” Wangchuk said.

“The United Nations team wanted to take our Passive Solar Heated Building to Afghanistan, and for this, they gave us a fee. We also got fees with tax from Swiss and Italian organisations for supplying knowledge to them about our artificial glaciers,” he added.

Wangchuk also acknowledged that his organisation was under the scanner of the Income Tax department over foreign transactions.

“We are getting an I-T summons. In the series of witch hunting, yesterday’s events were the last, and all blame was put on Sonam Wangchuk,” he said Thursday.