The decision of Ladakh’s lieutenant governor, Vinai Kumar Saxena, to carve five new districts out of Leh and Kargil, taking the Union Territory’s total to seven, has been projected as a bold administrative reform. The L-G, echoing the familiar cadence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s developmental rhetoric, claims it will bring governance closer to the people, generate jobs, and accelerate growth.

On paper, it sounds unimpeachable. In practice, it risks being little more than bureaucratic cartography, redrawing boundaries without addressing the deeper anxieties of a region that has simmered with discontent since 2019, when Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood was undone. For Ladakhis, the issue is not how many districts exist but who holds power.

Demand for real political........

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