It will not be surprising if Lakshadweep, as a result of the peoples’ aversion to reform, becomes the next Kashmir for India. Already, a global campaign to defame India for enforcing its rules over the archipelago with a 95 per cent Muslim population seems to be well underway. The Telegraph, for instance, has a big problem with the tree trunks in Lakshadweep, as part of a large Sangh campaign, being painted with ‘saffron’. Although the said trees have been painted with red and white colours, the colour-blind activists at Telegraph seem to have concluded that the paint is indeed saffron.
Lakshadweep district panchayat member Thaha Malika of the Congress, quoted by the Telegraph said painting trees in any colour was unprecedented on the islands, known for their pristine beauty. He said he couldn’t see any possible motive other than provoking the population through the choice of colour. “But since Patel’s agenda is based on his party’s ideology, there is much consternation among the people about trees being painted in saffron,” Mallika said.
The levels of intolerance which have come to be reported out of Lakshadweep are indeed shocking. Trees painted in red and white are being falsely called saffron trees – after which Congress leaders and their lackey publications propagate the same lie to somehow convince equally braindead zombies of how the saffronisation of Lakshadweep is going on full throttle at the behest of the Sangh Parivar. Such falsehood and intolerance immediately remind one of the Kashmir of the late ’80s and ’90s.
Meanwhile, the Communist-ruled state of Kerala on Monday unanimously passed a resolution in its assembly condemning the decisions of Lakshadweep administrator Praful Khoda Patel and termed those as attempts of the Sangh Parivar to impose its agenda on the people. The resolution demanded the Centre immediately recall the archipelago’s administrator.
A Qatar-based perfume manufacturer has named its new product ‘Lakshadweep’ in an act of solidarity with the Indian Union Territory that the company thinks is being subjected to discriminatory policies by the administration. The news of the new product was shared by the company on its Facebook page with the tagline ‘A fragrance protest’. Nazar Malik, one of the partners of the company said whenever the coming generation comes across ‘Lakshadweep’, they should remember about the island and the protests associated with it. “The perfume should self-explain about the whole episode of the injustice meted out to the island and the act of resistance,” he said.
A non-issue is being made out to be an existential threat for Lakshadweep by the unholy alliance of Communists and Islamists across the world. The reformist and much needed ‘proposals’ of the Union Territory’s administration are being termed as agenda-driven decisions being taken at the behest of the Sangh Parivar – which is a blatant lie. Nonetheless, the entire episode has exposed how a well-oiled misinformation industry can easily stoke disturbance in Lakshadweep by bringing in the “threat to secularism and Muslims” bogey.