New Delhi: Ladakhi innovator and activist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been at the forefront of the protests demanding constitutional protections for the union territory and its people, has questioned whether there is a link between all those trolling him on social media and the Union home ministry.
On the 51st day of protest, which is seeing relay hunger strikes by different groups from across Ladakh and Kargil, Wangchuk released a video detailing the various kinds of trolling he has received on his posts about the agitation. He has been called a CIA agent, accused of receiving funding from American philanthropist George Soros and – most commonly – accused of taking Chinese money and engaging in Chinese propaganda, he said.
The accusation of Chinese funding, Wangchuk said in Hindi, “is hurtful not just for me but for all the people of Ladakh, because we have been protecting India from Chinese incursions, and in such a situation these allegations are very hurtful”.
Another accusation Wangchuk confronted was that he is receiving funding from an organisation called DanChurchAid. “You probably haven’t heard of it, but this is a renowned Danish organisation that works in several countries across the world, and we had worked with them about 25 years ago on a programme to improve education.” That programme, he continued, was a “matter of pride” for India.
This 25-year-old matter, Wangchuk said, “has been buried in files – files that exist only in our office or that of the Union home ministry. Because as an NGO, every year we send the home ministry a report. But what is intriguing here is how this information, which is in files from 25 years ago – and it couldn’t be from us, so from the home ministry’s files – has somehow reached the hands of these trolls. I will think about this, and you should too.”
“I have noticed before too,” he continued, “that posts made by these trolls contain information that I have heard exclusively from those working in the home ministry’s agencies. How does this get to the troll? Can you guess?”
