Decoding the Mindset and the Real Issues of Lakshadweep

The population of the island as per the 2011 census is close to 65000. If you consider four members in a family, there are 16250 families. Close to 8000 of them directly earn monthly income from the government as government servants: permanent, contract, and casual labourers. One out of every two families is earning directly from the government.

The smallest population in the country with an area of 32 sq km; have an Administrator, Advisor, Finance, Home, Revenue, Forest secretaries, an MP, collector, SP and almost all the departments in any other states. If this UT was part of any other state it would not be larger than one subdivision of a district, or a Taluka in bigger states like UP. The UT has almost all the departments and units in any other state or union of India. Why such a small UT needs such large administrative machinery? The only reason is irrational government employment. That was the policy followed by PM Sayed longest-serving MP of Lakshadweep and the Congress government. Every islander after completing their basic education has a job reserved for them in one of the departments. If they had a better educational qualification they are definitely going to be a government employee. Otherwise, they would be taken on contract employment or as a casual labourer by any of the departments. All the jobs are reserved for islanders. Contract employees get no less than 20000 and more depending on their “departmentally defined skill set” and the casual laborers not less than 10000 a month.

All permanent employees are given high geographically difficult area allowances. Why should an islander working on his own island get these allowances? Lakshadweep government servants especially teachers and doctors are the highest paid in the country. Any person who has visited Lakshadweep and watched the government machinery closely may come to a conclusion that the man-hours spent by the above labor force is the least in the country for the money they earn.

Why does a place which is completely dependent on Kerala for all its food sources have a big agricultural, animal husbandry, supplies department? There is hardly any agriculture other than coconuts. In some of the islands, coconut plucking is done by coconut climbers from Kerala. Not a single islander does hard labor in the islands. All PWD laborers, coconut pluckers, tea stall workers, mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, electricians are non-Islanders. Hardly there is a private industry and private entrepreneurship. Even the tourist huts and hotels are run by the government with all the labor employed from within Lakshadweep and paid by the government.

But there are a number of NGOs surviving on extravagant government expenditure. All the PWD contractors are from Lakshadweep. Tourism, port, shipping, and Industries are money sinking machines with almost nil revenue vis-à-vis expenditure. 50% of the coconuts are wasted. Not even a micro-industry is present there. A place filled with abundant coconut trees, fish, and natural beauty has not found itself even a spot in the coconut, fishing, or tourism industry map of India. Why so? Is it a failure of governance? No, It is because the islanders” never want it”. Then how do they survive? How do they intend to survive?

Close to 10 lakh rupees on a family! Is any other Indian state/UT spending this much on its people, that too on a zero revenue state/UT? How is this money spent? Other than the salaries of the over-employed departments, the administration provides all sorts of subsidies to the islanders. Everything is given for free to the islanders. A unit of electricity requires 30 rupees for production that too by burning diesel in all the islands. It is distributed at negligible costs. A ship ticket hardly costs 150 rupees to travel to the mainland and back. For the islanders, the helicopter charges and flight charges are not more than 1000 and 5000 rupees respectively. The difference in the fair is paid by the government to the helicopter and air companies.

Every department is over-employed. The UT has the highest number of government servants relative to its population. Lakshadweep has the highest teacher-to-student ratio, while the education results are one of the lowest in the country. When all the government-approved posts are filled, the department appoints contract teachers. Teaching hours of individual teachers are the lowest among all the states. Other than two months of summer vacation there is one month of vacation for Ramdan. All the days of the importance of Islam are holidays. Textbooks are given free of cost. It might be only UT where students are given notebooks, uniforms, and cycles for free. And being classified as Scheduled Tribes they are paid money by the administration in the form of stipends and scholarships. Till the recent change, brought about by the new administrator, every day the students are served non-veg food with chicken, mutton, beef, fish, and eggs. In which other state a student studying in a government school is blessed by these facilities?

Lakshadweep is the only Muslim Community in the country notified as Scheduled Tribes. All over India and specifically in Kerala in all the colleges and universities, seats are reserved for Lakshadweep students. In all the medical colleges in Kerala, seats are reserved for Lakshadweep students. Hence the medical fraternity from Lakshadweep; doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and paramedical staff; are results of “entitlements” not competence. Because of which Lakshadweep has the poorest medical infrastructure in Lakshadweep. Unless and otherwise, you have a competent medical fraternity how there will be valuable inputs for medical infrastructure improvement. Almost all newborn deliveries and serious cases are immediately referred to Kochi by medical ambulance without serious analysis or commitment by the doctors. There is no accountability for these decisions. And who pays the bills? Government!

Lakshadweep remained as the only COVID- free UT/State till December 2020. How was it achieved? On detailed inquiry, it was found that Administration had issued an SOP for the movement of people between Lakshadweep and the Mainland. All the permits for mainlanders were canceled. No mainlanders were allowed to come. Only islanders were allowed. That too they had to undergo mandatory quarantine of 14 days in Kochi and need to be tested negative before being boarded to Lakshadweep. It was found that to maintain the above quarantine as per SOP, Administration rented private hotels in Kerala. For every islander traveling to the islands undergoing this quarantine, it was free lodging, free food, free testing, and free transport. Every month approximately 1 crore rupees was spent by the administration. When it was planned for the islanders to pay themselves they started protests. For one year administration continued this. What is the government expenditure? It was 10 crore rupees, for the movement of hardly 4000 to 5000 people. Which another state/UT would have done this?

Senior Central Government officers were locked in hotel rooms by the mob and the people blackmailed the administration to send the mainlanders back home that too during the lockdown. There were instances when defense personnel posted in the islands were not allowed to disembark in some islands. No local members and panchayat members came forward to feed the hungry mainland laborers from Kerala and states like Orissa and Bengal. Fortunately, there was a benevolent administrator and collector who immediately took personal attention and issued orders to take care of them.

Navy, Coast guard, and paramilitary officers who have worked in the islands have reported there have been frequent protests from the islanders to send the defense establishments outside the islands and hand over their land back to islanders. For all the needs islanders are dependent on the mainland. Kerala Assembly passed a resolution stating Lakshadweep share cultural ties with Kerala. Other than the Malayalam language used as a medium of instruction in schools and similarity in dressing Islands share no cultural similarity or ethos with Kerala. Fridays are school holidays. Where in India Friday is a holiday? Maldivian fishing boats are allowed in the Lakshadweep waters and local fishermen indulge in malpractices with them.

The Forest Department and coast guard have uncovered international crime syndicates recently. At the same time any boat from any other Indian state entering the area is immediately confiscated, poor fishermen arrested, and put behind bars for a permit violation. Islanders don’t celebrate any Indian festivals. Never ever an Indian International victory or achievement is celebrated there. Gandhi’s statue was not allowed to be installed which had to be brought back to Kerala. Kendriya Vidyalaya when was opened in the islands, there was severe opposition fearing a breach of the sanctity of Islam, till the administration took a strong stand and established the school.

Onam, a secular festival of all Malayalees, is not allowed to be celebrated in Lakshadweep by Islamic fanatics. Religious fanatics believe celebrating Onam will make them lose their Islamic faith. Even Kerala movie producers faced problems shooting movies in Lakshadweep because of religious extremists. Might be, the actors who stay in AC rooms and come out only for shooting, who have recently come in social media vociferously supporting the islanders won’t have known this.

There are temples on all islands. Who constructed those temples? Mainland Kerala Hindus who worked there. What happened to them? None of them were assimilated to Lakshadweep. Never ever they were given an opportunity to settle in Lakshadweep. Land can be only owned by the Lakshadweep people. Any effort by the administration to change was immediately opposed by islanders. Why the number of police cases is low in Lakshadweep? If complaints come against Lakshadweep people police don’t register cases because all are related to each other. But if it’s mainlanders they are immediately registered and harassed by police and locals. Slowly all the mainland Hindus were pushed out over the years and the administration and Lakshadweep is dominated by Lakshadweep Islanders who are 100% Muslim.

Islanders say the present Union Government is trying to destroy the islands. But it was the Modi government that decided to hand over the erstwhile British land to the islanders. The present government decided to construct underground cables costing thousands of crores for internet connectivity. It was only because of the present government mobile connectivity improved in Lakshadweep. It was the last BJP government under Vajpayee who had given the best of the ships to islanders. To continue the development the present government is planning to establish tourist infrastructure worth thousands of crores.

Freebies from the government without pan-Indian feeling. The present administrator pushed the pause button to their unsustainable demands. That’s why he was referred to as a “bioweapon” sent by Modi to Lakshadweep.