Ex-MP writes to Modi, harps on false promises to Ladakh

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 19

Thupstan Chhewang, the BJP’s face in Ladakh who recently resigned as a Lok Sabha member, has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi what will he tell people now after all promises made by the party to the region sound like empty rhetoric. He alleged that the Prime Minister went around the country projecting the BJP’s victories in Ladakh as “signs of its increasing reach” but the fact was that “the BJP achievement was based only on the strength of slogans”.

He also accused the party’s J&K incharge and national general secretary Ram Madhav and the state leadership of “making matters worse”.

Chhewang, who is the BJP’s tallest leader in Ladakh, said the party and its central leaders “exhibited little concern for implementing the categorical assurance given during the 2014 elections that the demand of the Ladakh region for a UT status would be met within six months”.

“As a local representative, my position increasingly became morally and politically untenable… We exposed ourselves to the charge of making false promises even on such sentimental issues as the inclusion of the Bhoti language in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution,” Chhewang said in the opening lines of a letter sent to Prime Minister on Sunday while giving his reasons for parting ways with the BJP.

Chhewang, who submitted his letter to Lok Sabha speaker and BJP state president on November 14, also sent a copy of the letter to BJP national president Amit Shah, saying he was forced to give reasons of his resignation to the Prime Minister due to propaganda by BJP state president Ravinder Raina.

“I kept writing to almost all party leaders and also spoke in the national executive meetings reminding them about our commitments to the Ladakh region. All pleas fell on deaf ears. Our leaders never cared to logically explain the reasons for the delay in executing our electoral assurances,” he said.

While taking a dig at Ram Madhav and the state party leadership, Chhewang wrote, “I felt that I had no choice but to keep away from their thoughtless actions in our region.” He also questioned the party’s decision to contest all seats during the elections to Kargil Council, saying, “The leaders wasted money, diverted resources, energy and attention from half a dozen seats where the party had a winning chance. The Chief Executive Councillor of the Leh Hill Council has recently been unceremoniously dropped, much to the anger and anguish of the party loyalists.”

Excerpts from letter

As a local representative, my position increasingly became morally and politically untenable…We exposed ourselves to the charge of making false promises even on sentimental issues such as the inclusion of the Bhoti language in the  8th Schedule of the Constitution.—Thupstan Chhewang, former BJP MP from Ladakh