A most unwanted event occurred on the crown of India's map last month. This opinion piece is a cry to all, who mean well by India, to bury the hatchet that has brought turmoil to the most peace-loving but hardy group of people, and to one of the most serene real estate that India possesses - Leh, where one cannot move a step without being greeted by absolute strangers with their lyrical greeting - ‘Juley'.
One day in August 1978, I, a young Flying Officer, took ‘lift' in an An-12 from Chandigarh to Leh for a month-long Chetak helicopter detachment. That began an association with that remote frontier through many flying detachments for the next four years, then in the mid-‘90s for two-and-a-half years as a Commanding Officer, followed by many short visits in the next two decades.
Leh grew on me, as it has on almost all Indian Army and Air Force personnel who has had the privilege of being stationed in the Ladakh sector. Can I apportion my feelings on many, if not most of the thousands of uniformed men and women who have been stationed there? I think I can, judging from the outpouring of bewilderment, grief and angst in social media by veterans after the violent happenings on September 24, when a protest turned violent and four Ladakhis were killed in police firing.
The Ladakhis are simple folks who go about working in the limited summer months to stock up on money, food and livestock for the bitterly cold winters when temperatures drop to minus 30 degrees and below. The harsh and punishing environment has made them rugged and tough to endure hardships that are difficult for others to even imagine. They are literally the backbone of the security forces, too, up in those dizzy environs. Pick up the photo of May 24, 1948, when Air Cmde ‘Baba' Mehar Singh landed his Dakota on the makeshift kutcha runway and opened up Leh for the Army to move in and throw back Pakistani raiders; what one would see are village folks who had constructed the runway, crowding around the Dakota aircraft. Or, pictures of the making of airfields at Chushul, Fukche and Thoise, which show the locals toiling on their haunches to level the ground with hands, shovels and hand-pulled rollers. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, we would swoop low in our helicopter upon spotting an Army patrol moving on foot along the Shyok river valley to reach Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) and Track Junction posts on the China border; on waving to the Ladakhis who manned these mule convoys - sometimes Yaks, too - they would cheerfully respond. It took us 90 minutes of flying to reach DBO from Leh - they, however, endured around two weeks of march.
And the wars. There is not one conflict in independent India that has not seen the Ladakhis give their life for the nation. Take Colonel Chewang Rinchen (twice awarded Maha Vir Chakra) and Colonel Sonam Wangchuk, a Mahavir Vir Chakra awardee from ‘Kargil'. Operation Meghdoot started on April 13, 1984, when the Indian Army moved up the Siachen Glacier. Since then, the work done by Ladakhis to provide logistics on the Glacier cannot be compensated enough. The combined warrior polity of Ladakh is personified in the Ladakh Scouts - an Army formation of local lads that embodies courage and physical endurance born of the harsh environment, and whose blood intermingles with the Ladakhi soil in India's wars.
And now comes this dissonance of public strife that acts as a disrupter.
With education, technology and the internet having permeated society, the livelihood of Ladakhis is just not farming as hitherto, but tourism, too, which has become a major source of employment. Getting connected with the world has raised the aspirations of the young, a very welcome sign but one that has brought along with it the frustration of youth seeking alternate employment. The relationship with the armed forces, however, still runs like a sinew in the Ladakh body politic and constitutes what the uniformed people call the ‘rear' - an intangible that makes for a secure foundation as the forces face up to the adversary. Its weakening in the strategically vital Ladakh sector would be detrimental to the security posture, a situation that just cannot be accepted. On social media, one can already see the adversaries fishing in troubled waters.
The local authorities have their task cut out to bring in peace in the short term. However, the long-term aim must be to bring back the mutual confidence and trust that existed hitherto. A soothing balm from enlightened statesmanship all round - devoid of politics - is the need of the hour.
Juley, everyone.
(The author is a retired Air Vice Marshal of the Indian Air Force)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
