Wangchuk gives Centre a year for Ladakh bill in winter session

New Delhi: A year. That is the deadline Sonam Wangchuk has set for the Narendra Modi government to put Ladakh on the road to an elected government — starting with a Ladakh bill in Parliament's winter session, and an assembly with its own government within twelve months.

The demand came in an exclusive interview with India Today, published September 7, two days before the Leh Apex Body's sub-committee sits down with Ministry of Home Affairs officials in Delhi on September 9.

For Wangchuk, the fight is less about the word "statehood" right now and more about who decides Ladakh's future. "What is bothering Ladakh is that big administrative decisions are taken even before the assembly has come into being," he said, arguing such calls should wait for elected representatives. "Our people's assembly has to be supreme" — covering bureaucracy, law and order, finances, and how the region is run.

He softened the immediate statehood pitch. Ladakh cannot expect everything "in the first go," he said, and is willing to accept a "tailor-made democratic set-up" for now, given the Centre's argument that the Union Territory is not yet financially self-reliant. "We can take time, learn, economy becomes self-reliant and maybe five or 10 years down the line we can become a state," he said. What he wants now is a clear political roadmap with a one-year clock on it.

Wangchuk also turned on the administration's reported move to open new liquor shops in Ladakh while it battles drug abuse among youth. "To bring liquor as an answer to the drug problem is undigestible," he said, warning it would only "add more fuel to the fire."

On the Gen Z student upsurge and the Jantar Mantar protests he joined — including his own weeks-long hunger strike alongside the Cockroach Janta Party agitation — Wangchuk rejected the frame of a dented "invincible" government. Invincibility, he said, belongs to authoritarian regimes like China or North Korea; India is a democracy, and the real problem was the government growing inaccessible. Street anger finding a democratic outlet is healthy, he argued, pointing to Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka as warnings of what happens when it does not. "To avoid that, what happened at Jantar Mantar is a glorious thing," he said.

He closed with the warning he has carried for years: on the Himalayas, time is up. "It's already late for us," he said. "We are in a disaster zone."

The September 9 MHA talks will test the ultimatum's first milestone. The LAB has deferred its planned Kargil-Leh march for the meeting — but warned of a "very large-scale agitation" if Delhi brings nothing concrete.

What we can verify

• One-year deadline: Wangchuk expects a Ladakh bill introduced and passed in the winter session, with an assembly and Ladakh's own government within a year. — India Today, The CSR Journal
• Tailor-made setup, statehood later: Willing to accept an interim democratic arrangement now; full statehood possibly "five or 10 years down the line" once economically self-reliant. — India Today
• Assembly supreme: Demands elected representatives control bureaucracy, law and order, finances; big decisions should wait for the assembly. — India Today
• Liquor criticism: Opposes new liquor shops amid youth drug abuse; "undigestible" as an answer, would "add more fuel to the fire." — India Today
• Jantar Mantar "glorious": Called the protests a healthy democratic release valve; rejected "invincibility" framing for a democracy. — India Today
• Sept 9 talks context: LAB sub-committee meets MHA officials September 9; Kargil-Leh march deferred, revivable if talks fail. — Times of India

What remains unverified

• Whether the Centre will table any Ladakh bill in the winter session; no government commitment to that timeline is on record in these reports. [unverified]
• Details of the reported new liquor shops (numbers, locations, official order) beyond Wangchuk's criticism. [unverified]