The residents of Ladakh, the eastern region of Indian-administered Kashmir, will no longer be identified as Kashmir but as Ladakhi.
On Monday, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) announced that the Ladakhis’ identity cards ‘Aadhaar’ will now be written as Ladakh instead of Jammu and Kashmir in its database.
The political and social circles of Ladakh have expressed satisfaction over this decision and reiterated their demand for regular statehood for Ladakh, however, the RSS-backed Shiv Sena has termed it a ‘conspiracy against the geographical and cultural unity of Jammu and Kashmir’.
It should be noted that when Article 370 was abrogated in 2019, Ladakh was separated from Kashmir and made a separate region, which will be directly administered by New Delhi.
According to a spokesperson for the Ladakh administration, this long-standing issue has been resolved after the personal intervention of Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena. Earlier, even when the Ladakh PIN code was entered, only Jammu and Kashmir was displayed in the state box, due to which the Ladakhi people had to face severe difficulties in obtaining identity documents and government benefits.
Now the people will not have to go to Aadhaar centers individually, but this change has been made automatically in the database.
While the Ladakh administration is calling this decision a big success, the Shiv Sena (UBT) in Jammu has expressed deep anger over this move and termed it a deep conspiracy to create distance between the two regions.
Addressing a press conference in Jammu, Shiv Sena Jammu and Kashmir unit president Manish Sahni strongly condemned this decision.
Sahni alleged that ‘the central government first took away the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, made it a Union Territory from a state, and now it is trying to divide the hearts of the people by drawing lines on official papers.’
The Shiv Sena leader added that, ‘The relationship between Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir is not just geographical, but is based on centuries-old shared culture, traditions, trade and brotherhood. This relationship cannot be broken by any bureaucratic decision.’
He demanded that Jammu and Kashmir be immediately restored as a full state and special provisions under Article 371 of the Constitution be implemented to protect the land, jobs and cultural identity of the people here.
Although the local and pro-BJP leadership of Ladakh have welcomed the decision as an administrative convenience and a sign of Ladakhi autonomy.
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