Thiruvananthapuram: To protest against the ‘controversial laws’, residents of Lakshadweep have begun a hunger strike on Monday seeking the Government of India (GoI) to reverse the ‘anti-people policies’ planned for the Islands.
The residents believe that the proposed “Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation (2021)” will destroy the unique culture and tradition of the islands and grant arbitrary powers to the administration to acquire land.
There is also anger over a proposed ban on the killing of bovine animals and the consumption, storage, transport or sale of cattle. Lakshadweep’s residents, who are mostly Muslim, feel these rules target their food habits.
Another trigger is the Lakshadweep Panchayat Regulation, which says candidates with more than two children cannot contest gram panchayat elections.
The changes have provoked immense local anger and their protests have been backed by various parties. Many MPs, bureaucrats and prominent voices have spoken up against the changes. The Kerala assembly has passed a unanimous resolution seeking the recall of the administrator.
“This is the first pan-island demonstration by the people of Lakshadweep asking that the Central government reverse the Administrator’s anti-people policies,” a report published in Hindustan Times quoted a spokesperson for Save Lakshadweep Forum as saying.
Migrant labourers, especially Keralites, are fleeing the archipelago en masse as a result of the decision to strictly implement the order for non-islanders to leave Lakshadweep.
Over 10,000 personnel from other countries were stationed on the islands to work there for their livelihood. Workers from Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Odisha, and Assam are among the migrants, in addition to Kerala, primarily engaged in construction, tailoring, and salon work.
For the first time in almost a decade, the islands are experiencing a hartal-like disturbance. On a few islands in 2010, several traders staged a hartal. This is also the first time that all of the islands’ shops have been closed and a protest day has been observed.
Kerala’s United Democratic Front (UDF) MPs will stage a dharna outside the Lakshadweep administrator’s office in Kochi on Monday to protest the GoI’s ‘anti-people’ measures, the report said.
“Kerala has the responsibility to stand with the islanders when attempts are being made to oppress the people,” the report quoted Anto Antony, convener of the UDF MPs as saying. The dharna, according to the MP, is being staged in order to put an end to the “antipeople” actions on the islands and to recall the administrator who is in charge of them.
On Sunday, 93 veteran officials wrote to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, criticizing the new administrator’s “political attitude” and urging him to maintain the islands’ distinct culture and customs.
The former bureaucrats’ letter to the PM claims that the draught regulations not only ignore the unique geography and community life of islands, but also give the administrator “arbitrary and draconian powers” to acquire, alter, transfer, remove, or relocate islanders from their property.
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