Wangchuk says he is under house arrest in Leh as Ladakh protests winter hill council polls

He had gone on Wednesday evening to the NDS Memorial Park in Leh to look at preparations for the agitation. According to one account, police removed him from the site the next day and told him to stay at home. A sit-in was planned by Wangchuk together with leaders of the Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance, the two groups that have led the demand for Ladakh's constitutional protection.

What the administration says

The Senior Superintendent of Police in Leh issued formal preventive orders restricting Wangchuk's activities. According to one account, the order cited his activities and alleged attempts to instigate the public, saying these had affected public order before and that future demonstrations could disturb the peace. The administration had also banned protests on Wednesday ahead of the polls. Ladakh Police described the action as preventive and based on the prohibitory orders, and did not use the term house arrest in the statements seen.

The territory's Chief Secretary, Ashish Kundra, called the hill council elections a watershed moment for democracy in Ladakh. He argued that since schools stay open until 15 December, adults should also be able to vote in winter. A notification of 20 October set up hill councils in all eight districts of Ladakh, including the newly created district of Sankoo; until now the territory had two councils, in Leh and Kargil.

Why the protest

The Leh Apex Body says it does not oppose the elections themselves. Its objection is to holding them in the depth of winter, when a large part of the population is away. Its co-chairman Chering Dorjay Lakrook said about 30% of Ladakh's people are outside the territory in winter, and that a December vote could deny many eligible voters their right to vote. He also alleged manipulation of the electoral rolls and the removal of young voters, a charge the administration has not been reported to have answered in the accounts available.

Wangchuk's broader demands are that the hill councils are given meaningful powers and that Ladakh gets greater autonomy and administrative authority. He wants the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the violence of 24 September last year to be released, and says its findings are being held back. That violence, in Leh, left four people dead and more than 80 injured, and Wangchuk was detained for a period under the National Security Act, which the Centre ended in March this year. He and other Apex Body representatives have written to the President, the Prime Minister and the Home Minister asking them to postpone the elections.

The protests sit inside a longer dispute. The BJP won the 2020 elections to the Leh hill council after promising Ladakh a place under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, which gives tribal areas autonomous councils with legislative and administrative powers. Ladakhi groups say that promise has not been kept, and the demand has led to protests, hunger strikes and a march to Delhi in recent years. The new notification of 20 October sets up hill councils in all eight districts, which the administration presents as a step towards local governance and the Apex Body treats as a substitute for the constitutional protection it wants.

The next steps are legal and electoral. Wangchuk has said he will go to court, and whether the restrictions are lifted will determine whether the sit-in can continue. The Apex Body has not said whether it will boycott the vote. The election commission of the territory has not announced any change to the schedule, and the administration says the polls will go ahead on 4 December. Readers should treat the house arrest as a claim by Wangchuk that the police describe differently, and watch for any order from a court or a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs.