‘Demands for Ladakh reasonable, need sympathetic consideration’: Ex-bureaucrats condemn Leh violence

A group of 113 retired civil servants and diplomats on Saturday criticised the Union government’s response to the protests for constitutional safeguards that took place in Leh on September 24, saying that the demands were reasonable and needed sympathetic consideration.

In an open letter, the Constitutional Conduct Group said that the Union government had repeatedly taken an “inept approach” to protests in the country, including during the demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the farmers’ agitation and the ethnic conflict in Manipur.

“Instead of trying to find out why so many people are protesting about a particular matter, instead of giving the protestors a patient and open-minded hearing, the government’s response is often the same – knee-jerk and negative, without any serious consultation with the stakeholders,” it said.

“The belief seems to be ‘if the people are protesting against the government, they are our enemies’,” the letter said.

The same approach could be seen in Ladakh, it added.

Police firing and violence had broken out on September 24 in Leh during protests demanding statehood for Ladakh and its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

Demonstrators clashed with and threw stones at the police, and set fire to the Bharatiya Janata Party office and a police vehicle. Four persons – Jigmet Dorjey, Rinchen Dadul, Stanzin Namgail...

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