Jailed Ladakh activist Sonam Wangchuk's wife challenges 'anti-national' label with photos of Modi, Yunus

Countering allegations of being "anti-national" after the statehood protest in Ladakh turned violent last week, since-jailed activist Sonam Wangchuk's wife Gitanjali Angmo on Monday shared two photos featuring Bangladesh's interim leader Mohammed Yunus — one with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the other with Wangchuk.

"If it's okay for the honourable PM to meet Mohammed Yunus, why is it a problem when Sonam Wangchuk, India's educator and innovator, meet(s) him?" she said in the X post.

She was apparently responding to social media chatter that has alleged Wangchuk, the most prominent face of the Ladakh agitation, "conspired" with those who ended the reign of Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh.

Security agencies have also cited Wangchuk's references to recent Gen-Z (youth) protests in Nepal and last year's student-led revolt in Bangladesh as proof that he "provoked" the violence on September 24 in which four protesters died.

He is now lodged in the Jodhpur prison under the stringent National Security Act that allows detention for up to 12 months without trial.

Leh remains peaceful but tense amid a curfew.

How Gijtanjali Angmo has defended her husband so far

Angmo, also an activist and educationist, has defended her husband by saying his speeches were misinterpreted.

Monday's X post was not the first time she has brought PM Modi into her argument.

She also shared a part of Wangchuk's speech praising PM Modi at an event in Pakistan in February 2025. "It was a purely professional engagement, for a climate conference organised by the United Nations and the Dawn media group," she said after the Ladakh police chief, SD Singh Jamwal, mentioned it as a "possible link" with the historically hostile neighbouring country.

Angmo questioned how India could play cricket with Pakistan while Wangchuk was being questioned over a UN event, in a post on X as she also denied any financial wrongdoings, on Sunday.

Where are these photos of Yunus with Wangchuk, PM Modi from?

As for her X post on Monday, the image of Wanghcuk hugging Yunus — being used in the social media posts calling him "anti-national" — is one he shared on his Instagram in 2020 of his meeting with Yunus, a Nobel-winning economist and social entrepreneur, at an event at the the British high commission in Dhaka.

The photo was one of two shared in the post below:

Hasina was still in power at the time.

Currently on exile in India, she was deposed in August 2024 in protests led by students triggered by an unpopular quota system and resentment over corruption. Yunus was then given the country's reigns as chief adviser while elections are likely by February 2026.

Yunus's photo with PM Modi is from April 2025, when they met on the sidelines of a summit in Bangkok, Thailand.

India's foreign minister S Jaishankhar had later said the Indian side conveyed concerns about rhetoric emanating from Dhaka, and radicalisation and attacks on minorities, during that meeting.

Delhi-Dhaka ties have been testy ever since Yunus stepped in to lead the caretaker government after the ouster of Hasina. The Indian side has repeatedly criticised the interim government's handling of attacks on Bangladesh's Hindus and other minorities. Hasina's presence in India has emerged as a contentious issue in ties.