MHA employing tools of fear, intimidation and threats in Ladakh: Kargil Democratic Alliance

Ladakh’s Kargil-based civil society group, the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), on Saturday (October 24, 2026) likened the approach adopted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Ladakh administration with that of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, and warned of street agitations if the MHA backtracked from its May 22 agenda. 

Addressing a press conference in Kargil, KDA co-chairman Asgar Ali Karbalai said the KDA and the Leh Apex Body (LAB) would not back down from their demands for a legislature under the proposed Article 239 AAA, and constitutional guarantees under Article 371. Mr. Karbalai, a former legislator, also accused the MHA of attempting “to disarm people of their rights”.

“The MHA and Ladakh administration have adopted the policy of pharaohs, by employing the tools of fear, intimidation and threats. They think it will force us to submit before them and say ‘yes, boss’. Don’t push the people of Ladakh to the wall. If the MHA does not return to the May 22 agenda, we will be forced to hit the streets, agitate and prepare to go to jail for our legitimate demands within the Constitution,” Mr. Karbalai said.

Mr. Karbalai, who was accompanied by Ladakh MP Haji Haneefa and KDA member Sajjad Kargili, said the October 15 presentation was an attempt to impose a body akin to the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA), and also establish the bureaucracy above the proposed elected legislature.    

“The offer of an NEFA-type agency is a slide from proposing the most powerful and strongest safeguards on May 22. Such an agency existed in the northeast 70 years ago and Ladakh is pushed back. The MHA sub-committee’s presentation is now invoking Article 240 to vest all the powers in the Lieutenant Governor, the President of India, and the bureaucracy, and deny [the legislature] the power to legislate. We rejected this hollow proposal,” Mr. Karbalai said. 

The KDA accused the Ladakh administration of flooding the region with notifications on Nautor land, liquor licenses, privatisation in education, and hollow panchayat and hill councils. “This is an attempt to play with the emotions and aspirations of Ladakh. If anything happens in Ladakh, the MHA and Ladakh administration will be responsible,” Mr. Karbalai said.  

The MHA on May 22 had promised a customised sui generis model with the best provisions of Article 371 incorporated into a special section of ‘K’ to have a set of constitutional guarantees for Ladakh. Civil society groups in Ladakh were expecting a draft from the MHA in the meeting scheduled on October 22, which has been delayed, Mr. Kargili said. 

“Instead, a unilateral approach is adopted to impose new things on us. Several unilateral decisions taken recently are akin to the murder of democracy. Announcement of 100 constituencies cannot replace the power already eroded from hill councils and panchayats. If Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar faces allegations of removing 13 lakh votes, in Ladakh, a testing lab, the entire idea of representation has been stolen,” Mr. Kargili said.

The KDA appealed to people to oppose “this attempt to turn the people of Ladakh voiceless”. “There is a lull in Ladakh ahead of the storm,” he said.