The government is stifling Lakshadweep
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The people of Lakshadweep, who used to live in peace despite the turmoil of the sea, have been going through turbulent and restless times for about a decade. With the island becoming the target of the Sangh Parivar government's mysterious interests, news coming from there is filled with the protests and cries of the people who face being alienated from their own land. The latest incident is the 'The Lakshadweep Town and Country Planning and Development Regulation, 2026', which the government has brought with the aim of strict control. On July 28, 2026, President Draupadi Murmu signed the law that makes land use and constructions including houses for development on the island subject to the Town Planning Regulation. The very next day, the law was brought into force without any consultation. Naturally the people have become angry and have started protesting. Interestingly, the President, who also represents the tribal community, signed this law, throwing to the winds even the basic principle of the Constitution that the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes should be consulted on matters affecting the fundamental rights of the Scheduled Tribes.
The historic verdict delivered by the Kerala High Court in August 2026 was a decisive intervention in disputes regarding land rights in Lakshadweep. The court conceded the people's argument that the 2023 Land Amendment Act revoked their rights to the land they had been living on for centuries and the court unequivocally declared the amendment unconstitutional and unenforceable. It also clarified that those who had been enjoying the Pandarabhoomi (state-owned land) since the 1965 regulation came into force are the full owners of that land. Realizing that the High Court verdict would be a setback for them, the current Lakshadweep Administrator Praful Khoda Patel, who was the Minister of State for Home when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, came out with the new Planning and Development Regulations a few weeks before the verdict.
The new law obliges the native population to to submit to the mercy of the Chief Town Planner and the committee of officials on everything from what can be built on it, what it can be used for, to the height and size of the building, even if it is private land. At the same time, the law allows land to be acquired for development and tourism without considering the opposition of the people. Although it says that a representative from the district panchayat should be appointed in the regulation committee that takes decisions, that will not suffice to heed the sentiments of the people, because the vast majority of the committee and the officials are subservient to the Administrator. And the MP, who is the representative of the people, does not have a membership in the committee.
Moreover, one of the first acts that Praful Patel did as soon as he took over the administration of the island was to behead the panchayat systems which were functioning albeit with limitations. With this, the voice of the people got stifled. The new law not only allows construction to be restricted in the name of planning, but also empowers officials to evict people under various provisions. In short, the union government and Praful Patel are leading a corporate invasion of the fundamental rights of the people of the island by imposing restrictions on land use rights in the name of tourism projects and urban development, making livelihoods impossible, and creating a vacuum. For the local bureaucracy, the people of those small islands and their fragile ecosystem are just real estate commodities. When compounded by the anti-Muslim sentiments fueled by the Centre, the murder of rights on the island becomes complete.
Lakshadweep's constitutional status as a Union Territory allows the Centre to implement laws that actually affect the lives of its people without any local consultation. The unconstitutional amendment of 2023 and the new Regulations Act were implemented without any consultation with the islanders and their democratic institutions. It is not only the people and politicians, but also more prominent notables including former Union Secretary E.A.S. Sharma who are raising this serious criticism against the Centre. For this very reason, people's participation in decisions that determine the future of livelihood and ownership is crucial. Regulations approved by the President have the same force as a law passed by Parliament. In the context of this legal protection leading to the killing of the rights of the people of Lakshadweep, it is high time to restore the decision-making power of the people in Union Territories like Lakshadweep. Otherwise, the unending anti-people laws that the islanders are currently facing will continue to erode their peace.