Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that Sonam Wangchuk wanted Ladakh to become Nepal and Bangladesh by instigating the GenZ. The remarks were made by Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta while a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Prasanna B Varale were hearing a plea challenging the detention of the climate activist under the National Security Act (NSA).
While replying to the arguments of Kapil Sibal, the lawyer of Wangchuk's wife, Gitanjali Angmo, Mehta said, "What will happen if I am sent to jail, he said? There will be events like Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This is happening in a border area, a very sensitive border."
Mehta also included Wangchuk's remarks on the army in his submission and said, "He said the presence of armed personnel is making the youth angry and the outcome will be similar to that of Nepal."
Calling the illustration of Mahatama Gandhi in Wangchuk's protest speeches fallacious, Mehta argued, "What Mahatma Gandhi was doing was against some other imperial govt not instigating people to resort to violence against their own govt."
Mehta also called out the invoking of the Arab Spring during the Ladakh protests, saying that there was a bloodbath back then, and the governments of six countries were overthrown. Mehta added, "This is an invitation to indulge in civil war, giving the example ofthe Arab Spring."
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Mehta further argued that giving the example of the Arab Spring was an invitation to indulge in civil war.
The Solicitor General cited Wangchuk's remarks on every region's right to decide where it belongs and said, "Being part of the J&K state, being a region having a common border with China, there you say that it is my right to decide with whom I belong or merge. If this is not a case for NSA detention, then no case can be."
Mehta also recalled Wangchuk's 'Sita ji ko bazar me bechne ke liye khada kiya', which was widely cited as a derogatory term hurting religious sentiments. Mehta said, "We don’t use this kind of language for our mothers."
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"My learned friend said this is only an allegory. This is a figure of speech. You don’t use this kind of speech for our mothers," Mehta replied to Sibal's argument from the earlier hearing.
In an earlier hearing in the case, Sibal had said that the detention order was founded upon stale FIRs that the detaining authority relied upon videos of detenue. Sibal argued that portions of such videos were selectively extracted. Sibal had denied the allegations against Wangchuk of making any derogatory remarks against Ma Sita. The hearing will continue on Tuesday.