Jamyang Tsering Namgyal | The 34-year-old MP from Ladakh who took Parliament, and India, by storm

A quaint place in the northern-most part of India, Ladakh has always been known for its dry and dusty peaks and picturesque passes.

However, now it’ll also be known for a fiery 34-year-old Member of Parliament (MP) who brought a new identity to the place.

BJP MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, popularly known as JMT, was an unexpected surprise in Parliament when seasoned politicians indulged in impassioned debates on the abrogation of Article 370 provisions, which led to withdrawing the special status from Jammu and Kashmir.

A relatively lesser-known MP in Lok Sabha, JMT found his voice and spoke with conviction. He asserted that Ladakh had been demanding the status of a Union Territory (UT) for a long time.

To the Opposition, who attempted to disrupt his speech, he just said one thing, “Please have the capability to listen”.

His speech, which shot him to fame overnight, projected the issues of Ladakh from a first-person perspective and was embellished with historical references.

He put the Opposition in a tight spot when he said “Ladakh’s identity, language and multi-cultured demography has been neglected for many years by the same parties, who are today projecting to be its guardians”.

His reiteration of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s sentiment that Article 370 has “stalled all development in J&K and Ladakh” transformed the smirk on BJP leaders’ faces to smiles and laughter of vindication. After all, an MP from the region would know better than those sitting in Delhi.

Hardened politicians – both from the ruling and the Opposition – were befuddled and awestruck over how a young man like JTN could capture the Parliament’s attention the way he had.

By the time the young politician cited BJP founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s words on Kashmir, “Ek desh mein do vidhan, do nishaan, do pradhaan nahin chalega”, he had found a fan-following in older, veteran politicians. His speech was not only appreciated with desk-thumping, but standing ovations and kind words. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tweeted a special post for JTN.

My young friend, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal who is @MPLadakh delivered an outstanding speech in the Lok Sabha while discussing key bills on J&K. He coherently presents the aspirations of our sisters and brothers from Ladakh. It is a must hear! https://t.co/XN8dGcTwx6

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 6, 2019

JTN’s social media following sky-rocketed overnight after he delivered his Parliament speech, with his Twitter followers increasing 30-times from a mere 4,000 to 1,29,000. In fact, he had to divert his Facebook followers to Twitter, saying, “I cannot accept more friend requests on Facebook as the limit of 5,000 is crossed.”

Born to a carpenter father and a housewife mother in Matho village outside of Leh, JTN became the youngest MP from Ladakh at 33. Before entering active politics, he had made ends meet by hopping around some teaching jobs. Later, he quit them to pursue higher studies in Jammu, where he was a student union leader.

When he was campaigning in Ladakh ahead of Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, JTN was ridiculed by Comgress members for being a “chandang”, which means an ‘unripe apricot’, a local Ladakhi slang for an amateur.

But, when he won from the seat, in a speech from Leh’s Polo Ground, he had said, “The unripe apricot has ripened now. Now, it is the season for us to shake the apricot trees or beat the branches with sticks to ground the rotting apricots.”

And shake the tree he did.