How Ladakh protest leader Sonam Wangchuk went from Indian hero to ‘traitor’ | Politics

New Delhi, India — On the night of August 5, 2019, hundreds of Kashmiris were arrested amid a crackdown by Indian security forces that followed the Indian government’s decision to strip the region of its special rights and status as a state.

Sonam Wangchuk celebrated, and thanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“THANK YOU PRIME MINISTER,” he wrote on X, then Twitter, “for fulfilling Ladakh’s longstanding dream.”

One of India’s best-known innovators and education reformers,…