Save Lakshadweep: Islanders left with little means to protest amid pandemic, network issues

Kochi: The people of Lakshadweep are in dire straits. The pandemic induced lockdown has prevented them from taking to the streets to protest against the administration's reforms.

The protests are now raging online through the #SaveLakshadweep campaign on Facebook and Twitter.

With the lockdown, there is no scope of public protest. A few youth organisations have pasted posters outside houses in certain areas.

Network issues have been thwarting internet and phone connection issues of the Union Territory for a while now.

But friends from neighbouring Kerala have come forward to take up the islanders' cause and fight for their rights. A majority of remarks on Administrator Praful Patel's social media pages may be traced back to Kerala.

"Our friends in Kerala have helped us gain national attention," Ibrahim, a resident at the Minicoy island of the Lakshadweep archipelago said.

Most islanders are worried of being arrested for protesting against the administration, he added.

There is also an increasing worry that all network will be suspended if the protests scale up.

Opposition parties in Lakshadweep and Kerala are up in arms against various measures initiated by the Administrator of the group of islands, terming them as "anti-people" and have sought his recall.

They alleged that the administrator Praful Khoda Patel unilaterally lifted restrictions on the use of alcohol in the Muslim-majority islands, banned beef products, citing Animal Preservation and demolished fishermen's sheds built on the coastal areas, saying they violated the Coast Guard Act.

The BJP, defending Patel, claimed that the protests were a result of his efforts to end "corrupt practices" involving local politicians prevalent and usher in development there.