What is happening in Lakshadweep, and What needs to be discussed?

Praveena Sankar, MCJ

Lakshadweep is an archipelago of 36 islands, of which only ten are inhabited. The inhabited islands are Kavaratti, Agatti, Amini, Kadmat, Kiltan, Chetlat, Bitra, Andrott, Kalpeni, and Minicoy. The population of all these islands together constitutes 64429. It was in 1956, Lakshadweep was made a union territory. These islands are known its peace and harmony, which is evident from their low crime rate. But this peace is being disrupted in Lakshadweep for the past six months. So, it is worth taking some time to discuss what is happening in Lakshadweep.

Like any other union territory, Lakshadweep is administrated by the President of India and an administrator appointed by the President himself. Praful Khoda Patel is the current administrator of Lakshadweep. Certain measures taken by the new administrator have created a stir among the people of the island. But before we look at the actions he has been taking in the past six months, we should do a background check on Patel. Patel is a former BJP leader from Gujarat and a confidante of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His father is a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader. Allegations have been raised against him earlier this year for driving Mohan Delkar, an independent MP from Dadra and Nager Haveli, to death by suicide. Now that the scene is more transparent, we should look into the measures he took in the past six months. However, the protests have shown that these measures are against the interest of the natives. Some of these measures are worth discussing, they are:

1.LDAR-Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation

This act gives the administration power to choose any land for "development" activities that have been provided under its regulation. Once the land is picked, it could be used as the government sees fit. This means the owner would have no control over the land whatsoever because the land would be provided for a "public purpose."

2. PASA-Prevention of Anti-Social Activity bill

Most popularly known as the Goonda act. According to this act, the administrator can arrest someone and keep him in custody for a year without disclosing charges. This act states that "the administrator may if satisfied with respect to any person that with a view to preventing him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order, it is necessary to do so, make an order directing that the person should be detained."

3. APRA-Animal Preservation and Regulatory Act

This act demands that for an animal to be slaughtered for any needs, they will need a certificate from the administration. For the slaughter of cows, calves, bullocks, and ox, such a certificate will not be issued, which prevents the slaughter. And for the slaughter of animals other than cows and bullocks, for religious purposes, they will require a certificate from the authorities. In the same context, last February, the administration removed non-vegetarian food from the midday-meals menus.

4. The Lakshadweep Panchayat Regulation Act

This act disqualifies those with more than two children from participating in the election or becoming a part of the gram panchayat. Other states in India have also adopted this act. But, it resulted in men divorcing their wives to run for local body elections and families giving up children for adoption to avoid disqualification.

5. Sale of Liquor in three islands.

The sale of liquor is now allowed in three islands, which were only available in Bangaram Islands. Only 7% of men consume alcohol in these Islands. Yet, this measure was taken in the name of tourism promotion.

6. Regulation in airlifting

This order changed the standard operating procedure of emergency evacuation of patients. According to the order, the committee will scrutinize all the relevant documents submitted online by the medical officer-in-charge in the respective Islands along with the specialist concerned at Indira Gandhi Hospital, Kavaratti, and recommend the evacuations case by case. The natives fear that this new order will affect the airlifting of patients adversely during emergencies.

Along with these, the demolition sheds built by fishermen along the coastline in the coastal regulation zone act, passing of orders to close down farms and auction of all livestock, winding up of diary farms, termination of casual and contractual workers of various government offices were the other draconian measures that the administrator has taken.

Now that we are aware of what is happening in Lakshadweep, it is necessary to look into what needs to be discussed in this issue. If you still believe whatever is happening in the archipelago is the result of Patel's idea of privatizing the island, You should think twice! Organiser, a publication by RSS, has already avowed their unison with Patel's actions saying that these are all for the development of the island. If this was for the development, shouldn't he be convincing his subjects about these developmental measures? And why is he taking away the jobs from the natives if he really wished for their growth rather than driving them into starvation? Fishing, animal husbandry, and government jobs are the primary source of income for the native people, which the administrator has put an end to.

'Why mix religion in this?' is a statement that we often hear. What is wrong with discussing religion if a group of people is being subjected to humiliation because of their religious and cultural identity. So, religion is something that we need to be discussing whenever it is requisite. Shekhar Gupta, from The Print, said, 'There is a fear that BJP is now seeing Lakshadweep as the only other Muslim majority territory in India, after Jammu and Kashmir.' About 97% of the population of these islands are Muslims. And Lakshadweep is India's largest Muslim-majority territory apart from Jammu and Kashmir. Now that the name of Kashmir is mentioned, we could look at a pattern between what is happening in Lakshadweep and what happened in Kashmir. If we look much closer, Patel's policies are definitely revealing shades of Kashmir. We saw how the central government silenced those protests in Kashmir with the preventive detention and the internet ban. Doesn't the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities bill sound the same as Preventive detention? The administrator is planning to bring CRPF forces to implement these plans without considering the protest from the natives. Therefore, whatever is happening in the name of development, is the Sangh Parivar trying to hide their political goals intended to pursue in Lakshadweep and also their internalized Islamophobia. So to take this issue forward, it is crucial to discuss the religion and the religious majority in Lakshadweep.