Ladakh's Activist Fasting at Jantar Mantar Sparks Comparisons to Father's Historic 1984 Protest

In politics, when history repeats itself, comparisons are bound to be made. Today, from social media to diplomatic corridors, a historic event of the year 1984 has suddenly come into the limelight. This discussion has started at a time when Friday was the 20th day of the fast of Sonam Wangchuk, a well-known educationist and environmental activist of Ladakh. Interestingly, exactly 42 years ago (in 1984), Sonam Wangchuk's father Sonam Wangyal had undertaken such a fast for the demands of Ladakh. Then the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had ended Sonam Wangyal's fast by reaching Leh. Today when Wangchuk is fasting for his demands at Jantar Mantar, he is being compared to his father's movement. Actually, in 1984, Sonam Wangyal, a senior leader of Ladakh and a minister in the then Jammu and Kashmir government, started an indefinite hunger strike to demand Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for various communities of Ladakh. According to the then news agency PTI, Indira Gandhi herself had appealed to meet Wangyal in 1989 to discuss the demands of Ladakh.