There is more to Praful Khoda Patel's designs in Lakshadweep than promoting tourism

Highways in Lakshadweep? Well, why not? If you have highways in the mainland, why deprive the islands in the middle of the Arabian Sea? Never mind if the islands are far too small and often not even five kilometres from one end to another. The roads must be widened, preferably two or three lanes, although there is hardly any vehicular traffic in the tiny islands. But the administration has now the power to take over land and houses and do what it pleases for the sake of development.

Hotels and resorts must be built and the world may be fighting a pandemic but Lakshadweep must gear up for high-end tourists and real estate development. A kind of a central vista in the middle of the sea?

By Lakshadweep administration’s own statistics, the last updated ones on the website, show less than 400 foreign tourists visited the islands in seven months in 2018. The number of domestic tourists during the same period was a little over five thousand.

To provide some perspective, the total area of Lakshadweep is 32 square kilometres. But the atolls, the reefs, the submerged areas and uninhabited islands are excluded from this area. The National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi in contrast takes up almost 55,000 square kilometres. Not surprisingly, the population of the Lakshadweep archipelago, a group of 36 islands, is said to be just about 65,000 people in the 2011 Census. Only about 12 of the islands are inhabited although the administration is determined to open up and develop 10 more islands for, well, high-end tourists.

The most lucrative source of income for the islanders are government jobs. Although coconut plantations and fishing remain the primary preoccupations, copra, coir and coconut milk are the other products produced. Tuna fish is canned and along with shark are also exported.

Tourism has not made much headway because outsiders are not allowed to buy land and permits are required. Also, because the beaches are small and narrow, availability of freshwater is limited and electricity generation in the islands, which are between 200 to 400 kilometres from the mainland and the Kerala coast, is again limited.

But ‘developing’ the tourism potential of Lakshadweep does not seem to be the primary or the only agenda of the five-months-old Administrator Praful Khoda Patel. Why else would he get as many as 2,000 temporary government employees dismissed, among them youth who cooked food in schools and doubled up as sports instructors? Why indeed would he order a ban on non-vegetarian food in schools in islands, where vegetables are scarce?

Curiously, one of his first decisions has been to order opening of Lakshadweep’s first liquor shop. There has been prohibition in force in the islands for a century and more. But the Administrator clearly believes it is an impediment in promoting tourism. Or does he have some other idea in mind?

Activists believe the Government is planning to hand over the islands to crony capitalists. They claim an island in Andamans has already been given to Baba Ramdev.

There are other orders which defy reason. Why shut down 38 Anganwadis taking care of lactating mothers and children? Why ban freight of goods from a port in Kerala and order the trade to move to Mangalore in Karnataka?

Why would Patel do away with the Standard Operating Procedure which required all visitors to the islands to be quarantined? While Lakshadweep reported not a single Covid case during the first wave in 2020, in May the number of cases reported is over 650. The first case was reported within two weeks of Patel lifting the SOP and till mid-May 22 deaths had been reported.

Patel, who was the home minister of Gujarat under Narendra Modi after Amit Shah had been arrested and externed in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, also ordered the demolition of fishermen’s sheds built with prior permission. Old habit dies hard? He also ordered the demolition of hoardings and boards put up against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) over a year ago. People are baffled by the lack of any method in Patel’s seeming madness. Why allow beef in Goa and Arunachal Pradesh but ban it in Lakshadweep? Why retain the ban on liquor sale in Gujarat but lift the ban on liquor in the islands?

International footballer C.K. Vineeth was among the first to voice his outrage. The team India player fumed, “His administration destroyed many sheds set up to help the fishing community. Then, for a place which has very few vehicles, he wants to widen the roads and bring down several houses that are in the way... police stations of Lakshadweep have very little crime to deal with and jails are empty, then why do we need the Goonda Act?”

Praful K. Patel’s past: Praful Patel, who is also the Administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, was named by the son of Mohan Delkar, Adivasi leader and seven-time member of Parliament who committed suicide in a Mumbai hotel, for abetment.

In his police complaint, the MP’s son alleged that Praful Patel was harassing his father to cough up Rs 25 crore or face a false case under the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities (PASA) Act. Based on his complaint a case has been registered by Mumbai Police. The islanders are up in arms. And while the President of India and the Union Government seem to have ignored the snowballing protests against Patel, islanders accuse him of trying to turn Lakshadweep into Mauritius, another safe haven for money laundering.

Meanwhile, an impromptu ditty is becoming popular among the youth. The following lines sum up the mood:

Let me tell you of these

Islands called Lakshadweep

Like the rest of Bharat

Now they too are in deep sh.t

Back in 2020 when

The pandemic was hot

Total number of cases

In Lakshadweep was nought…