The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers mounted a protest here against Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena after Delhi Chief Minister Atishi was stopped from meeting climate activist Sonam Wangchuk at Bawana Police Station. Wangchuk and around 120 others on a march to Delhi demanding Sixth Schedule status for Ladakh were detained at the Singhu border on Monday night.
The Delhi Police has stepped up security around the Bawana Police Station where Wangchuk has been kept. After being denied permission to meet Wangchuk, the chief minister slammed the BJP and the Lt Governor, alleging that this is dictatorship.
"I reached Bawana Police Station to meet Sonam Wangchuk ji and 150 brothers and sisters of Ladakh. Delhi police did not let me meet them. We were told that LG sahab called and ordered not to let me meet them. This dictatorship is not right," Atishi alleged in a post on X.
She said that Wangchuk and the people of Ladakh are also fighting against the LG's rule, and demanded that the same rule be ended in Delhi as well. "The people of Delhi stand with the people of Ladakh. The LG rule should end in Ladakh. Also, the LG rule should end in Delhi. Ladakh and Delhi should get the status of a full state," the chief minister said.
On being prevented from meeting Sonam Wangchuk the people of Ladakh, the Delhi CM expressed, "I am sure that because of LG Saab's phone call, the representative of the elected government, the Chief Minister of Delhi was not allowed to meet Sonam Wangchuk. Because BJP is afraid of the voice of the common people, afraid of democracy.”
Scores of AAP workers protested outside the Bawana Police Station against Delhi LG. AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal also objected to Wangchuk's detention and said, "Delhi is not any single person's inheritance; everyone has the right to come here." "Sometimes, farmers are stopped from entering Delhi, at other times Ladakhis are stopped. Is Delhi someone's personal property? Delhi is the nation's capital, and everyone has the right to come here. This is completely wrong. "What are they so afraid of from unarmed, peaceful people?" he asked. Slamming the detention, Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia said, "Is Sonam Wangchuk a terrorist? Why does the central government want to stop them from entering Delhi?" He alleged that the BJP was working on converting every state into a Union Territory and jailing those who happen to oppose it.
Wangchuk and several of his associates have gone on an indefinite fast at police stations where they have been kept. According to police sources, they were all examined by a team of doctors. Wangchuk was leading the march, 'Delhi Chalo Padyatra', which began from Leh a month ago. He and around 120 others from Ladakh were detained on Monday night.
The march was organised by the Leh Apex Body (LAB), which along with the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), has been spearheading an agitation for the past four years to demand statehood for Ladakh, seek its inclusion under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, early recruitment process along with a public service commission for Ladakh and separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil districts.
Wangchuk and those accompanying him were detained at the Delhi border for violating prohibitory orders and were taken to different police stations, including Bawana, Narela Industrial Area and Alipur, according to a police officer.
"We tried to convince them to go back as Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) (which prohibits assembly of five or more people) is imposed in the national capital but they were adamant," the officer said. The police had imposed curbs on gatherings of over four people in Delhi between Monday and Saturday in three districts —North, Central and New Delhi—along with all police station jurisdictions on Delhi’s borders.
For imposing the curbs, they cited communal tensions over the Waqf Amendment Bill, Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s standing committee elections, pending Delhi University Students Union poll results and elections in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, among other things.
