Activist Sonam Wangchuk on Thursday accused the Centre of keeping Ladakh “deprived of democracy” and treating it as a “controversial area” by keeping it a Union Territory without a legislature.
The statements came after a Union home ministry meeting scheduled for Thursday with Ladakh leaders in the national capital did not take place. The stalemate is the latest turn in a long dispute over Ladakh’s political future. The Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) have since pressed for statehood or, failing that, a UT with a legislature and constitutional safeguards.
The region has been a UT without an elected assembly since 2019, governed by a lieutenant governor. Talks with the home ministry resumed after violence and arrests in Leh on September 24, 2025, and Wangchuk said he spent six months in jail in Jodhpur.
Wangchuk said the cancellation, with no reason given, had prompted the region’s leadership to consider taking its case to the United Nations.
The talks between the government and leaders of the UT have gone through three rounds this year. The government has not publicly explained why the October 22 meeting was called off, and its version was not available at the time of publication.
