New Delhi: A student leader, a lawyer by training, Chief Executive Councillor (CEC) of the Ladakh Hill Development Council (Leh) and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate from Ladakh, Tashi Gyalson is described by functionaries in Leh as a “sharp leader” with a lot of “goodwill”, which the party is now banking on.
For the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, he told ThePrint, his focus will be on two key agendas — to resume talks between people of Ladakh and the central government and to instil confidence that only the BJP can offer a favourable solution in the interest of Ladakhis.
Gyalson was announced as BJP’s candidate after the party dropped its sitting MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal.
According to a senior member of the Leh Apex Body (LAB), one of the umbrella outfits negotiating demands with the ministry of home affairs, Namgyal was dropped after he became unpopular among Ladakhis for “not standing up for the region”.
Speaking to ThePrint, Gyalson said that he aims to resume the talks, which have broken down, between the central government and the Ladakhi leadership to ensure a solution.
In Ladakh, there is a prevailing sentiment that the BJP-led central government did not fulfil the promise it made in its manifesto ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as well as the Ladakh council polls of 2020 — that of including Ladakh in the Sixth Schedule, leaving the region vulnerable to the whims of “outside” authorities who are unfamiliar with Ladakh’s needs and challenges.
“Things are not achieved overnight,” said Gyalson. “For any solution, a dialogue is required. The pros and cons of all demands and suggestions have to be discussed.”
“We have to find a favourable solution which is in the interest of the people of Ladakh,” he added.
Earlier with the Mehbooba Mufti-led People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Gyalson had contested assembly elections twice in the erstwhile J&K state, but lost. He joined the BJP in 2019, before Ladakh became a Union territory and, in 2020, contested the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) elections to become the Chairman and CEC from Leh.
“He is very popular among people in Leh. He is young, energetic and sharp. He was a definite choice for the BJP,” an LHADC functionary said.
Gyalson, who earned his law degree from Campus Law Centre in Delhi, has had a long association with the BJP. It was in 1995-1996 that he joined the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and was part of the founding team in Ladakh.
In 2002, when all political parties were disbanded and the Ladakh Union Territory Front was established, he left for Delhi to pursue his law degree, an LAHDC functionary said.
In August 2002 political parties in Ladakh dissolved their units and launched a common front to fight for creation of Ladakh as a UT. This decision was reportedly taken by the Buddhist Association at a meeting where units of parties, including National Conference and BJP, were present.
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‘PM Modi has a vision for Ladakh’
Gyalson said that he wants to reassure people of Ladakh that it is only a strong party like the BJP which can fulfil their dreams and demands.
Ladakhis, he said, are in a position to demand more and dream because they are a UT and not just any district in a state, like earlier when Ladakh was part of J&K. He added that it is only under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who wants to make Ladakh a model UT, that the demands of Ladakhis can be fulfilled.
“The PM has a vision for Ladakh. He cares about its people and wants to see Ladakh as a model UT. This is the vision I aim to carry forward,” he said.
The transition of Ladakh into a Union territory, following the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir (of which Ladakh was previously a part), initially elicited celebrations among residents as they had always accused the J&K leadership of being discriminatory and ignorant towards their region.
With Ladakh becoming a UT, residents expected better administration, representation in Parliament, access to government funds and resources, and a heightened focus on development. But soon after, when the central government declared Ladakh a UT without a legislature, voices in the region began to rise in protest demanding autonomy, jobs and safeguards for their land and culture, leading to a full-blown protest with over 20,000 people joining Environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk in his hunger strike last month.
Moreover, breakdown of negotiations on these demands being held by two umbrella outfits — LAB and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) — along with members of the LAHDCs from both Leh and Kargil, with the ministry of home affairs further exacerbated a sense of alienation, fuelling greater discontentment.
“It is the leaders from the BJP who have heard our grievances and fulfilled our dream of becoming a Union territory in the first place, so we must have a dialogue with them to resolve these issues,” said Gyalson.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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