Ladakhi Buddhists, once allies in grievance with Jammu’s Dogras against alleged Kashmiri domination, are now waking up to an unsettling arithmetic — that their former allies have allegedly become their new masters.
Allegations of Kashmiris dominating Jammu’s Dogras and Ladakhi Buddhists used to abound in the erstwhile state before the 2019 scrapping of special status under Article 370.
As a result, Dogras — who were around 25 per cent of the state’s population but nearly a half of Jammu’s population — and Buddhists — just a fraction of Jammu and Kashmir’s population but almost half of Ladakh’s population — stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Buddhists to air their grievances against the Kashmiri leadership and bureaucracy.
In a twist of irony, the cry of “Kashmir domination” is fading in Ladakh — replaced by allegations of “Jammu domination”.
Jailed activist Sonam Wangchuk’s wife Gitanjali Angmo recently compared Ladakh’s administration to that of colonial India, suggesting that outsiders were now ruling the Union Territory with Ladakh Police acting more as collaborators.
“Is India really free? In 1857, 24,000 Britishers used 135,000 Indian sepoys to oppress 300 million Indians under orders from the Queen. Today, a dozen administrators are misusing 2,400 Ladakhi police personnel to oppress and torture 3 lakh Ladakhis under the orders of the MHA (ministry of home affairs),” Gitanjali wrote, without directly raising the issue of Jammu domination.
But Ladakh Buddhist Association president Chering Dorjay was blunt in pointing to the regional composition of the top bureaucracy, calling it “Zorawar 2”.
He was referring to Dogra general Zorawar Singh who annexed Ladakh into the rule of Jammu-based Dogra ruler Maharaja Gulab Singh in the 19th century. He remains a controversial figure in the region.
The three top positions in Ladakh today — lieutenant governor Kavinder Gupta, chief secretary Pawan Kotwal and director-general of police S.D. Singh Jamwal — are held by Jammu Dogras.
The three officers have been accused by the local leadership of unleashing the new hard line on the protesters fighting for statehood and special status for Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule. Several other key officials are from other parts of the country.
Gupta has strong roots in the RSS and served as deputy chief minister and Speaker in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
“This is our resentment. We call it Zorawar 2. I left the BJP because, if we fought elections here, what say should the Jammu BJP have? But it is they who used to dictate to us to do this or that. It is they who used to distribute money. Were we servants?” Dorjay, who served as BJP minister in the Mehbooba Mufti-led government, said. He resigned to fight for Ladakh’s rights.
“We had more interference in the Ladakh BJP from the Jammu BJP, and we were not willing to accept it,” he said.
Dorjay said his personal experience was that the Kashmiri leadership — Omar Abdullah, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti — were more accommodating and the Ladakhis’ complaints were mainly against the Kashmiri bureaucracy that “dominated the civil secretariat”.
While several Kashmiri leaders, including Omar and Mehbooba, recently rallied in support of Ladakh and condemned last month’s killings in Leh, several Ladakhis complain that Jammu has not been supportive.
Jammu-based BJP leader Ankur Sharma, who previously headed a party that sought statehood for Jammu and supported Union Territory status for Ladakh, said most of the demands of Ladakh had already been met and they had “been granted what they wanted” — referring to the UT tag and reservation in jobs.
Sharma said other demands like Sixth Schedule status were raised belatedly by the Ladakhis — after the revocation of Article 370 — and a high-powered central committee was looking into them.
Asked about the local grouse that Jammu was dominating Ladakh, he said there was no deliberate policy to plant leaders and officers from Jammu, adding that it was a transitory phase.
“Who would like to leave Jammu for Ladakh, away from home. I am talking in that context. It is the government’s compulsion that if there are posts vacant there, they have to be filled by somebody,” Sharma said.
He referred to the past when Jammu and Ladakh shared a common understanding that the Kashmiri political class was discriminating against them.
“Jammu is a friendly place (for Ladakh) if there is one LG from Jammu. He will have the same feelings for Ladakh as he has for Jammu for historical reasons,” Sharma said.