Rahul Gandhi received a rousing reception in Ladakh on Thursday as he made his promised trip to the region amid growing anger against the Centre’s alleged reluctance to grant it special status.
Ladakhis had turned up in large numbers at the Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport in Leh on Thursday afternoon to greet Rahul. Many more had lined up along the road as he drove to Grand Dragon Hotel, around 3km away.
During Rahul’s speech on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha on August 9, the Treasury benches had pointed out that he had left out Ladakh during his Bharat Jodo Yatra. Rahul had then said that the Yatra was not over yet and he would soon visit the region.
Ladakh was not on the Yatra route but Rahul had received an invitation from the region's leadership. "That time the road to Ladakh was closed. Otherwise, I am sure he would have continued his Yatra here. He promised he would come to Ladakh and fulfilled his promise today,” Tsering Namgyal, Leader of the Opposition in Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, told The Telegraph over the phone.
Namgyal said Rahul was on a personal visit. “But he will meet people to get a sense of the situation here. Today he is taking rest, but tomorrow a series of programmes are lined up. There will be an interaction with the youth and the civil society. He will also watch a football match,” he said. “It is a two-day visit but it can be extended.”
Some reports said Rahul would visit Pangong Lake on the border with China where the latter reportedly continues to hold India’s territory.
Rahul will also visit Kargil, where the election to its autonomous hill council is under way.
Both the Muslim and Buddhist communities in Ladakh are up in arms against the Centre’s alleged reluctance to grant special status.
Buddhists had cheered Jammu and Kashmir’s loss of special status and division into two Union Territories but they, along with the Muslims, now fear that outsiders might take their land and jobs if they are not given special status under the Constitution’s Sixth Schedule.
