The Kerala Assembly on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution to remove the Lakshadweep administrator, Praful Khoda Patel, from all his responsibilities. The resolution, after accepting an amendment moved by Muslim League MLA N Shamsudheen, also wanted the Centre to revoke all the "controversial orders" passed by the administrator.
" The centre has the responsibility to ensure that the unique way of living of people in the centrally administered Lakshadweep," the resolution, which was read out by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the Assembly on Monday, said.
Straying from the written text of the resolution, the chief minister said that the Sangh Parivar was looking at Lakshadweep as a laboratory for their Hindutva politics. "We need to strongly oppose attempts to enslave people under corporate and Hindutva interests, " the chief minister said. Opposition members Shamsudheen and Congress's P T Thomas wanted these words to be included in the resolution. The chief minister said the spirit was embedded in the resolution and there was no need to write it down in plain words.
The resolution referred to the historical, traditional and trade relations Kerala had with the Lakshadweep islands. "Before British colonialism, the islands were under the Arakkal Kingdom in Kannur. From 1956 November 1, Lakshadweep was part of Malabar district, " the resolution said.
Further, the resolution said the islanders depend on Kerala for health and educational needs. It also spoke of the administrator's encroachment into Lakshadweep's culture and it's people's way of life.
Opposition leader V D Satheesan supported the resolution in full. He said the administrator was carrying out a cultural invasion in Lakshadweep. "They are being evicted from their land by the new Lakshadweep Area Development Regulation, " Satheesan said. "By destroying the sheds where they keep their fishing implements and coconuts, the administrator was challenging their very right to live, " the opposition leader said.
He termed as "draconian" the proposed law that would bar those with more than two kids from contesting even a panchayat election. He said a goonda act was proposed in a land where there was not a single criminal in any of its jails.
Satheesan, too, called the administrator's actions in Lakshadweep as a "sangh parivar experiment".
Lakshadweep residents have been protesting against a proposed cow slaughter ban, a preventive detention law and a draft law proposing sweeping changes in land development regulations, which were introduced by the union territory’s administrator, who has close links with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Patel was the Home Minister in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat cabinet.
