Save Lakshdweep! Extreme Bad governance by Centre (BJP) Govt.

Due to some personal commitments/emergencies, I was not regular on my blog, nevertheless here is my latest blog on yet another example of bad governance by Indian central govt. 

Lakshdweep Airport

Lakshdweep and Andaman Nicobar Islands are two pearls of India- these are cleanest, richest bio-diversity and very pristine climate places of India.

Recently Government of India brought 1 major change in the    administration of the Union Territory of Lakshdweep. 

What exactly happened ? The blog elaborates more.

A brief on Lakshdweep: 

Lakshdweep is formed by combination 35 small, very beautiful and extremely rich bio-diversified Islands in Arabian Sea at Indian Ocean, India. 

The total surface area of Lakshdweep is 32.62 k.m*k.m (this is lesser than 7% the total area of Indore- India's cleanest city) and as per 2011 Indian census the total population of Lakshdweep is less than 65 thousand - This is approx equal to the population of Itanagar- the capital city of  Indian state Arunachal Pradesh. 

These figures makes Lakshdweep India's smallest Union Territory. Due to its less size and low population; Lakshdweep has no Legislative Assemble and no Chief Minister. 

The democratic representation of Lakshdweep has only 3 pillars as explained below: 

1. One Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha - Elected by People. 

2. Local Self Government- i.e. Panchyats. 

3. An Administrator appointed by the President of India. - (This is where the majority problem has occurred).  

Lakshdweep Problem Timeline

Dineshwar Sharma

Till the year Nov 2020 there was no problem in Lakshdweep, the Indian President appointed administrator Mr. Dineshwar Sharma (an IPS officer) was doing a great job. It is noteworthy to mention that before Mr. Sharma the 35 Lakshdweep administrators were also educated IAS/IPS appointed by the President of India. 

On December 4th 2020 Mr. Sharma passed away due to illness and unfortunately the miseries and bad governance of Lakshdweep took birth. 

Normally the successor of Mr. Sharma is expected to be a Bureaucrat(IAS/IPS). However to everyone's shock the successor administrator of Mr. Sharma becomes a BJP Politician- Praful Khoda Patel. 

Figure 4

A Background Check of Praful Khoda Patel:

In 2007 Mr. Patel started his Political career by winning a MLA Seat on BJP Ticket in Gujarat.

In 2010 when Mr. Amit Shah was arrested by CBI, Mr. Patel was made State Home Minister of Gujarat by Narendra Modi. (Refer Figure 4). 

Then in 2014 when Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister of India. Mr Patel was nominated the Administrator of U.T Daman & Diu. (Refer Figure 5). This was quite a shocking move by the PM because traditionally & constitutionally the U.Ts administrator were always the IAS/IPS Officers appointed by the President of India, however there was a Paradigm Shift that Mr. Modi made anyways the shock does not end here.

Figure 5

In 2016 Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT also witness same strange phenomenon, Mr. Praful Khoda Paterl was appointed as administrator of the Dadra & Nagar Haveli, needless to say this was once more against the tradition of appointing an IAS/IPS as administrator.  

This was an extremely strange thing happening in Indian Democracy, One Politician was made the administrator of 2 UTs as if there was a heavy crisis of IAS/IPS in India that one Politician was made the Administrator of 2 UTs and God knows why President of India was seeing all these so silently ?

Figure 6

In April 2019 during election at these 2 UTs Mr. Patel was accused by Election Commission for man handling the election procedures and preventing IAS Gopinathan from performing his electoral duties (Figure 6). EC also warned Mr. Patel not to perform any mischievous act in election procedures. 

Shockingly few months later the IAS Officer who was interrupted by Mr. Patel resigns from Service, noteworthy to mention that the IAS was an excellent Serviceman, he was a hero in Kerala Floods rescue. (Figure 7).

Figure 7

 

In another controversy during August 2019 Mr. Patel was involved in demolition of 90 houses of Poor People stating the houses are in sea facing location. People protested against this barbaric  action by U.T Administrator and Daman & Diu's democratically elected M.P assured to restore the houses on grounds of humanity. Later the UT Administrator - Mr. Praful K Patel told abandon people to approach the collector and seek home loan in PM Awas Yojna, when people continue to protest, the govt imposed Section 144 and converted 2 govt Schools into temporary prison. 

Figure 8

A pure act of pure barbarism: people's home demolished and when they seek their home back, Govt tells people to take home loan and when they refuse they are put in prison (Figure 8).

Mr. Patel's next controversy came in Dec 2019. India's home ministry merges Dadar & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu to forms a single U.T by the name of Dadar & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu. Post merger People hoped that they will get more democratic rights in form of a Legislative Assembly & a democratically elected Chief Minister just like in the UT of Delhi & Pudhucherry. However the exact opposite happens Govt appoints an administrator for the new merged U.T and the new administrator is Mr. Paful K Patel. (Figure 9). 

Figure 9

Next controversy in Feb 2021 the MP from U.T of Daman & Diu and Nagar Haveli Mohan Delkar commits suicide in Mumbai and he left a 15 pages suicide note and needless to mention the prime accused was Mr. Praful K Patel (Figure 10).

Figure 10

The died MP's son revel that his dead father was harassed by Mr. Praful K Patel who was asking an amont of INR. 25 Crore and incase he fails to pay INR. 25 Crore he will booked in a false cases of Anti Social Acts. 

I suppose this much introduction is sufficient for Mr Praful k Patel. now lets talk about Present problem in Lakshdweep. 

Present Problem in Lakshdweep:

At present Mr. Praful K Patel is appointed as administrator of not only Dadar & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu but also Lakshdweep. So now I will walk you one by one on each step that crated a horror in Lakshdweep. 

1. Murder of Democracy: Mr. Patel modified the powers of Panchayats in Lakshdweep, he simply sucked away the freedom of democracy from People of Lakshdweep. As per new reforms by Mr. Patel removed 5 key powers from Panchayat namely:

Figure 11

Education, Health Care, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries. The memebers of Panchayat are democratically elected by local elections however removing the powers of Panchyat is a murder of democracy, Refer the quote from Gandhi Ji on Panchayat. (Figure 11).

Figure 12

2. Preventing local Lakshdweep people to contest in elections:  As per the new law a person who has more than 2 kids (either biological or legally adopted) can not contest in local election, this is a very strange law ever implemented in Free India; Mr. Patel intended to made this law so that a potential rival to him may not contest election and cause any harm to ruler (or dictator) Mr. Praful K Patel. It is noteworthy to mention that 96 of the elected BJP MPs in Lok Sabha have 3 or more kids. This non sense law literally killed the free and fare election possibilities in Lakshdweep. 
I feel so pity that for a U.T with lowest fertility rate in India and a very low population, the U.T is witnessing such a stupid law, also as per Ministry of Health the Highest Woman Literacy in India is in Lakshdweep at 96.5% (Figure 12), such law in Lakshdweep makes no sense.

3. People of Lakshdweep alledged that Praful Patel is responsible for COVID 19 Spread in Lakshdweep:

Figure 13

  In 2020 Lakshdweep witnessed Zero Corona cases  as the SOP was: if someone visits Lakshdweep he/she needs to get tested and perform a mandatory 14 days quarantine. However Mr. Praful Patel changed this law and made a negative RT PCR as mandatory to visit Lakshdweep and simply roam free. As a result Lakshdweep witnessed its 1st Covid19 case in Jan 2021 and now has more than 6000 cases and 24 deaths as per latest norms.(Figure 13). more than 10% of Lakshdweep population got affected by Covid19, this is 500% more than Indian average where less than 2% population is affected by Covid19.

4. Anti Goonda Act:

Figure 14

  Police is made judiciary, as per the new Goonda Act by the Mr. Praful Patel. Police can arrest anyone and without any trial just punish them and put them in Jail. I am willing to mention that even Supreme Court of India criticized this Goonda Act but it seems govt don't pay attention to Supreme Court statements.

The new Anti Goonda Act enables police to arrest any one without a warrant and police can detain people for upto 1 year. #RIP_Freedom. 

Its very important to mention that in 1919, Britishers introduced a similar law called Rowlatt Act that empowered Police to arrest and detain any one without any trial or warrant.  

It is absolutely senseless to introduce such an inhuman act in Lakshdweep, a place with smallest national crime rate in India, you will surprised that so far only 2 murder cases have ever been recorded in Lakshdweep (Figure 14).  

It is very unfortunate to have such laws even if the crime rate is high because these laws are against the principle of natural justice and against democracy. 

Local people have said that this law will be used to put those people in Jail who protest against decisions of Praful Patel. 

5. Creation Lakshdweep Development Development Regulation 2021 (LDAR):

Figure 15

This regulation enables govt to remove anyone from their home in the name of Town Development, this will result in loss of people home and allocating land to corporate for Industrial development, even the democratically elected Panchayat of Lakshdweep can not interfere in this moves, this will badly harm the ecological balance of Lakshdweep. (Figure 15). 

Mr. Praful Patel has said that he wants to create a Smart City in Lakshdweep, can some one dare to ask PM Modi how many smart cities he has created in main land India since he became PM in 2014. 

 6. Ban on Beef and Unban on Alcohol:

Figure 16

Mr. Praful Patel banned the use of Beef in Lakshdweep and un-banned the consumption and sale of alcohol. A majority of Lakshdweep population is of Malayali origin with Islam faith and beef consumption is very common there is culturally and traditionally putting ban on such eating tradition is killing freedom of choice. Further govt enable sale of alcohol so that resorts can serve it in name of tourism. 

7. Demolish of boats and houses of Fishermen: 

As per CPI Leader Praful Patel demolish the fishermen homes and boat shed in the name of Town Planning, this is pure barbaric. (Figure 16)

Conclusion:

Figure 17

Lakshdweep is a very small U.T of India with a very low population, very low crime rate, a very high literacy rate and a very manageable population growth rate. 
Just like any other part of Free India people of Lakshdweep needs constitutional democratic freedom. Senseless censorship will only create a damage to harmony of people.

On the other hand the administrator said that he is doing economic development in Lakshdweep and aims to make Lakshdweep a tourist destination just like Maldives that will eventually give a rise to economic well being of people, but we need to ask do we really need that, Lakshdweep is home to one of the most sustainable bio diversity on Earth, in a recent study WWF rated Lakshdweep fishery as most sustainable (Figure 17). 

Above all government is acting barbaric by demolish of People houses and Boat shed, further introduction of laws, acts and regulation that revoke people's freedom and democratic rights is not only unconstitutional and nonsecular.

I wish someone in India takes a citizen friendly action against the dictator government as its a pain to see a non democratically elected politician insanely hurting people of Lakshdweep, rest the past track record of Mr. Praful K Patel itself speaks for him low efficiency in administration. 

   

Mr. Praful K Patel, Administrator of Lakshdweep and Daman & Diu &Dadar & Nagar Haveli.

न चोरहार्यं न च राजहार्यंन   भ्रातृभाज्यं न च भारकारी ।  व्यये कृते वर्धते एव नित्यं विद्याधनं सर्वधन प्रधानम् 

Neither it can be stolen not it can be divided knowledge  gets multiplied when shared

Cheers! 

Nishant