Ladakh awaits ‘healing touch’ as BJP fails to honour Sixth Schedule promise: Congress

The Congress on Monday said Ladakh was still waiting for a “healing touch” from the nation and the leadership of a party that had promised Sixth Schedule protection in its 2020 local hill council election manifesto but was now refusing to fulfil that commitment.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh made the remarks on X, even as Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh arrived in New Delhi on Monday for a four-day visit aimed at strengthening cooperation in energy, mining and defence.

“The President of Mongolia arrives in New Delhi today accompanied by a high-powered delegation. “Diplomatic relations between India and Mongolia go back to December 1955. India played an important role in Mongolia’s joining the UN in October 1961,” Ramesh wrote.

Highlighting the historical ties between the two nations, Ramesh said the turning point in the relationship came when “Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s inspired appointment of the 19th Kushok Bakula Rinpoche in October 1989 as India’s Ambassador to Mongolia”.

“He took over in January 1990. He was a highly revered Buddhist monk and public figure of Ladakh and served for an unusual ten years as Ambassador. He played a key role in helping Mongolia rediscover and celebrate its Buddhist heritage after the collapse of communism there in 1990 itself. He remains an iconic figure in Mongolia,” Ramesh added.

“On June 10, 2005, the Leh Airport was renamed after the 19th Kushok Bakula Rinpoche by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh who hailed him as the ‘architect of modern Ladakh.’ The revival of Buddhism, not just in Mongolia and the erstwhile USSR, but also in India itself owes much to him,” he said.

“The 19th Kushok Bakula Rinpoche’s Ladakh now desperately awaits a healing touch from the nation but most of all by the leadership of a party that promised Sixth Schedule Constitutional protection in its manifesto for the local hill council elections in 2020 but is now, as the ruling party, refusing to fulfil that promise,” Ramesh added.

His remarks come amid growing discontent in Ladakh following the violent clashes on September 24 in Leh during an agitation led by the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), who have been demanding statehood and constitutional safeguards under the Sixth Schedule.

Opposition leaders have strongly criticised the deaths during the protest and the arrest of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk under the National Security Act.

As tensions simmer in the Union Territory, President Khurelsukh’s visit is being seen as a reminder of the region’s deep spiritual and cultural ties with Mongolia, a legacy shaped decades ago by Ladakhi monk-diplomat Kushok Bakula Rinpoche.