New Delhi: Activist Sonam Wangchuk on Thursday accused the Centre of keeping Ladakh "deprived of democracy" and treating it as a "controversial area" by keeping it a Union Territory without a legislature.
A Union home ministry meeting scheduled for Thursday with Ladakh leaders in the national capital did not take place. Wangchuk said the cancellation, with no reason given, had prompted the region's leadership to consider taking its case to the United Nations.
"We were told with complete determination that we will meet in Delhi on the 22nd of October," Wangchuk told the media in New Delhi. "We made our plans and bought our tickets. Today I am here, and the meeting is not happening. The country should know how the hopes of Ladakh have been ruined again and again."
Ladakh has been a Union Territory without an elected assembly since 2019, governed by a Lieutenant Governor. Talks with the home ministry resumed after violence and arrests in Leh on September 24, 2025. Wangchuk said he spent six months in jail in Jodhpur.
The Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance have since pressed for statehood or, failing that, a Union Territory with a legislature and constitutional safeguards. The talks between the government and leaders of the UT have gone through three rounds this year.
The government has not publicly explained why the October 22 meeting was called off.
Ladakh has been a Union Territory without a legislature since its special status was revoked in 2019, and the demand for statehood has since been a recurring political theme. Wangchuk has previously led protests in Delhi over the region's demands.