Sonam Wangchuk's hunger strike has brought Ladakh's demands back into the national spotlight. But decades earlier, his father Sonam Wangyal fasted for the region's Scheduled Tribe demand. Indira Gandhi visited Leh at the time, and in 1989, a constitutional order formally recognised eight Ladakhi tribal communities as STs.

Sonam Wangchuk has been on a hunger strike for a long time. Notably, new details related to the activist's father recently came into the headlines.