As the Government sleeps, dark clouds gather on the horizon…

Read this eye-opening report on Ladakh by Tarun Vijay in the Times of India in full…(Anirban, thanks for alerting me to this)

Excerpts below:

“…Of late Ladakh has been witnessing a continuous trespassing by Chinese shepherds and soldiers in Chushul area where we fought a famous war of Trishul mountains led by Major Shaitan Singh (who received Param Vir Chakra after his and his brave men’s bodies were discovered one year after their martyrdom) and in the vast grass lands near Demchok.�

…Chinese are known to enter our region in a clandestine manner. In the initial stage they would do it through innocent passages into our territory using shepherds, soldiers and traders. If caught, they would say, oh nothing to worry we simply went wayward.

If not, it continues for years, the intruders would leave their marks, some properties and cattle too. Make some permanent bases. Later these small ‘marks’ would be used to claim that ‘since ages’ Chinese have been using that piece of land – see the ‘proofs’!

We were caught napping during Kargil intrusion. When patriotic Ladakhi shepherds told the Army about Pakistani intrusions initially, it was not taken seriously. In the same way alarms about the latest Chinese intrusion are being taken lightly and in some ‘strategic’ quarters its being suggested that such talks would hamper the growing trade between the two nations.
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Now a few facts:

Out of 2,22,236 sq kms of the J&K state, Jammu has 26,293 sq kms and Ladakh 1,38,942 sq kms. It must be remembered that 78,114 sq kms of the state is under illegal occupation of Pakistan, 37,555 sq kms under illegal occupation of China and 5,180 sq kms have been illegally handed over to China by Pakistan.

While Ladakh constitutes 69.60 % of the state’s total land area, Kashmir valley, the most turbulent and vocal one is just 11.48 % and Jammu 18.92 %. Within Ladakh, Buddhist majority district Leh has 45,110 sq kms and Shia Muslim majority district Kargil has 13,000 sq kms. While Kargil has shown an extraordinary growth in population of 17.34 % in the years between 1981to 1991, Leh population grew at the rate of just 9.10 %. Even in Leh district the population of Muslims increased from 15.32 % in 1981 to 18.37 % in 1991 (projected).

Buddhists fear an assault on their culture and traditions through the conversion of Buddhist girls and a planned effort to outnumber Buddhists through a population aggression.

In 1992 an agreement was signed between the Ladakh Muslim Association and Ladakh Buddhist Association, the supreme organization of Ladakh representing Buddhists, at the intervention of Ministry of Home Affairs ensuring that the Buddhists converted to Islam shall be allowed to return to their original faith, but the Muslims never honoured the agreement.

The following points were raised by the Buddhist Association in a memorandum to the Central Government –

…Twelve villages with hamlets of Buddhists, comprising 651 families (numbering app. 5000 persons) located at 40 to 60 kms from Kargil town were targeted for conversions. Till 2002, 72 boys and girls were converted to Islam as per the survey conducted by the Ladakh Buddhist Association.

3. Muslims of Kargil are not allowing the LBA to repair and reconstruct a 40 year old. Gompa comprising three rooms and at present lying in shambles.

4. Cremation of dead Buddhists is not allowed at Kargil and the body has to be moved at a remote Buddhist area.

5. No Buddhist Sarai is allowed to be constructed at Kargil though there has been a demand for the last 35 years.

6. Six new mosques have been constructed at Leh town during 1989-99 in close vicinity of Buddhist habitations and in a planned manner more than 540 Muslim families have been settled at Leh, majority of them coming from Kargil.

7. Kargil has 20% Buddhist population. Yet (a) only one Buddhist was appointed as patwari out of 24 patwaris, the rest were all Muslims. (b) In 1998, 40 employees for class IV were appointed in education department, out of these only one was Buddhist, that too after his conversion to Islam.

Similar complaints, with proven statistics were given regarding discrimination against Buddhists in the Kashmir Administrative Services (KAS), admission to medical and engineering colleges, and allocation of development funds received from the Centre. Needless to say such discriminations would fuel the anger and communalise the polity in an ugly manner if proper corrections are not made immediately.
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No government has considered the complaints of the local Ladakhi Buddhists seriously.

(By the way conversions were not limited to Islam)

…President of Ladakh Buddhist Association Mr Samphal…has requested the Union Home Minister to intervene and ensure that 39 Buddhist students who had been taken away from Ladakh by some Christian missionaries were brought back to the land of lamas before they were forced to adopt Christianity.’ (Jan 12, 2000, Tribune News Service).

When the UPA government took over, the first thing they did to Ladakh was to change the name of the world famous Sindhu Darshan Festival to Ladakh Singhey Khabab Spring Festival because, as the minister stated on record, the name Sindhu Darshan smacked of ‘Hindu Darshan’! This is the attitude towards the national integration of this secular government.
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Himalayas, was once called the unconquerable security wall of the grand Aryavarta i.e. Hindustan. The myth fell apart in ’62 aggression by the Chinese and still neither the younger generation nor the sunset leadership in politics seems to be much bothered about securing the security wall, nature had so thoughtfully gifted us.

From J&K to Arunachal, we have Ladakh, Himachal, Uttaranchal, UP and Bihar’s border area with Nepal, Sikkim and Assam reaching up to the Tawang region of Arunachal on this belt.

Not a single spot can be said to be a secure and unthreatened one and the fears of disturbance are increasing by the day on this entire belt.

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When will we wake up?

Related Posts: Arunachal: Sleepwalking into a disaster

Dancing with the Dragon and India, China and Arunachal Pradesh – are we missing something?

Image courtesy: Wikipedia