Cong condemns Wangchuk's arrest, calls it bid to divert attention from BJP's 'abysmal failure'

New Delhi, Sep 26 (PTI) The Congress on Friday condemned the arrest of environment activist Sonam Wangchuk and said it was done to divert attention and responsibility from the BJP’s "abysmal failure" to maintain law and order and ensure security of life and property in the Union Territory of Ladakh.

Police on Friday arrested Wangchuk, two days after protests demanding Ladakh's statehood and Sixth Schedule status left four people dead and 90 injured in Ladakh.

Wangchuk was taken into custody by a police party led by Ladakh Police chief S D Singh Jamwal at 2:30 pm, officials said, adding that he has been shifted out of Ladakh.

While there was no official word on the charges pressed against Wangchuk, sources within the Ladakh administration indicated that the stringent National Security Act (NSA) has been invoked against the climate activist.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh, said, "The Indian National Congress condemns the arrest of noted environmentalist and educationist Sonam Wangchuk under the National Security Act." This has been done to divert attention and responsibility from the BJP’s "abysmal failure" to maintain law and order and ensure security of life and property in the Union Territory of Ladakh, Ramesh claimed.

"The crux of the issue is that the BJP has deceived the people of Ladakh for years. It promised the region Sixth Schedule status in the 2020 Leh Hill Council elections and has gone back on that promise with a vengeance," Ramesh said.

It (BJP) claimed that it gave Ladakh autonomy from the larger Jammu and Kashmir but it has really ended all semblance of democracy in the Union Territory, he alleged.

"The Modi government cannot brush these issues away or suppress them by arresting Mr Wangchuk. It needs to engage with the people of Ladakh in sincerity and with alacrity," Ramesh said.

Wangchuk, a leading voice for the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), has been spearheading the five-year-long agitation for statehood and constitutional safeguards for the residents of Leh and Kargil, which form part of the Ladakh UT carved out from erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.

The Centre has strongly blamed Wangchuk for inciting the recent violence but the climate activist denied all the allegations.

"To say it was instigated by me is to find a scapegoat, rather than addressing the core of the problem, and this will lead us nowhere," Wangchuk said on Thursday, adding that the violence was a symptom of frustrated youth.

The arrest came a day after the Union home ministry cancelled the FCRA licence of the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), an organisation founded by Wangchuk, citing alleged financial discrepancies and a fund transfer deemed to be against "national interest". PTI ASK ARI