Jamphel Sheyan
The exceptional case of victory in Ladakh Parliamentary Election. Yes, you heard it right: Who won the 17th Parliamentary Election in Ladakh? It may sounds silly but this silly questions carry some truth that can challenge the façade of victory assumed by BJP in Ladakh. If one pushes his eyes a little harder and tries to read the present political discourse in Ladakh, it reflects a discourse in play that is neither BJP centric nor congress centric. It is the philosophy of socialism that has simmered in the consciousness of people in the highest district of India -Ladakh. In the recent parliamentary election- BJP exploited this new born consciousness in their favour through the image and rhetoric skills of Jamyang Tsering Namgyal who swept the Ladakh constituency with a margin of around 11000 votes. Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, the poster boy of Ladakhi political sphere is the only leader in Ladakh or perhaps in entire Jammu and Kashmir to scale such momentous height in politics within a short period of nearly 5 years. In the last 5 years, he succeeded from a common man to a Councillor in LAHDC-Leh to the Member of Parliament from Ladakh. This overnight rise of a politician in a short span of 5 years is the talk of town in Ladakh. In this entire episode, it is interesting to see how BJP is presenting this success of an individual as the success of BJP party in Ladakh. No doubt, technically BJP swept the election but ground realities suggest that it is common people who won, perhaps. It may sound absurd but truth is always bitter. BJP has been in the news for hate politics, mob lynching, religious intolerance, Love-Jihad, suppression of dissent, meddling with highest institution of India like CBI, Supreme Court, CAG and RBI and many of its failed policies. These variables did not carry much weight in local politics in Ladakh. Congress and other opposition in Ladakh used these facts to win their chances but it all turned into dust for them. The ineffectiveness of such national issues in Ladakh parliamentary election points toward agendas and challenges that govern its local politics. One of these challenges anti-incumbency that BJP ingenuously engineered into the burgeoning class differences in the traditional caste based society of Ladakh. The genesis of this class based differences lies in the monopoly of elite people in the overall political and cultural life of Ladakh.
Today, Congress signifies a party of rich and elite whereas BJP means party of poor and downtrodden in Ladakh. This binary is an offshoot of the rise of Jamyang Tsering Namgyal as the CEC in LAHDC-Leh smashing the elite presence in Ladakh in general and BJP in particular. The politics of Ladakh has been elitist from the very beginning. In the beginning of democracy, religious gurus occupied parliamentary and assembly seats uncontested, and hereafter it was succeeded by people from higher caste both in Leh and Kargil districts of Ladakh. Every national or regional party is headed by a political leader in Ladakh of higher caste in Ladakh and BJP is not exceptional. Amusingly, the rise of Jamyang Namgyal as the most loved and powerful leader of BJP in the recent times in Ladakh has changed the elitist BJP into messiah of poor and downtrodden overnight. Time will reveal how true and hollow is this image of “Messiah of poor”? Despite all these political aberration on the part of BJP, this slogan gained currency in the political scenario of Ladakh like never before, and it bombarded rich against the poor in the last parliamentary election. Today, Jamyang is looked upon as the champion of poor and downtrodden and he is reckoned as the “Pride” and “Lion of Ladakh”. In this whole environment the role of National and State BJP party cannot be denied but the faith and love showered by the people of Ladakh surpasses the role played by any agency in the election. It would be a gross mistake to credit BJP and Jamyang Tsering Namgyal for the victory of their ideology in Ladakh. There has been presence of Hindutva ideology in Ladakh from a long time and the functioning office of Rashtraya Swayam Sevak (RSS) and few schools run by RSS is an undeniable truth. On the basis of such variables, it will be wrong to colour whole Ladakh in the colour of Hindutva. Electoral victory of Jamyang Tsering Namgyal is the victory of suppressed and marginalized people of Ladakh who want positive changes not Hindutva majoritarian politics. Many educated people apprehension against trafficking of the votes of common people of Ladakh into dissemination of saffronized politics in Ladakh through the Jamyang Tsering Namgyal.
The future roadmap for Mr. MP would be to negotiate his policy of change between development and Hindutva ideology in the tight atmosphere of apprehension that has enveloped Ladakh after his victory. The immeasurable love for Jamyang Tsering Namgyal springs for the image of a common Ladakhi people and his oratory skills that people recognise in his personality. This love is the voice of a common Ladakhi asking for development and harmony uniformly unlike selective development in the past. People voted him cutting across differences of religion and region with a hope that he is the harbinger of much awaited and required change. All the rhetoric of “RSS Ka Baccha” “Sanghi” and “Hindu agent in Ladakh” turned on deaf ear and people voted him. There would have been many technical reasons for his victory but this article is more interested to gauge the qualitative issues that counted in the recent election.
The only alternative for opposition is to bring a new outlook and vision that can stop the escalating influence of Jamyang Tsering Namgyal and BJP. No doubt, Congress and other regional parties have due share in the development of Ladakh but their defeat speaks volumes of their failure too. Until then, it is time for Mr. MP to work on his promises and prove all the allegations of oppositions wrong by maintaining centuries old cultural and communal harmony of Ladakh under the regime of BJP. Let’s see how Mr. MP negotiates the uphill task between Hindutva and development or acquiesce into Hindutva politics in his maiden inning in the parliament of India.
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