After 'No' To Congress, Lakshadweep Blocks Left MPs' Visit, Cites Covid

Two days after blocking the visit of three Congress MPs, the Lakshadweep administration - under fire over controversial new laws for the union territory - has now refused to give eight Left MPs from Kerala permission to visit the islands.

As with the refusal to the Congress leaders, the administration expressed concern that the MPs' visit would lead to the spread of COVID-19 and political unrest that "... will disturb the calm and peaceful atmosphere... be against the interest of the general public".

MPs Elamaram Kareem, V Sivadasan, AM Arif, Binoy Viswam, Shreyams Kumar, K Somaprasad, Thomas Chazhikkadan and John Brittas had sought permission to visit Lakshadweep "to have a fact check on the impact of administrative actions and reforms under the present Administrator..."

Both groups of MPs had last week approached the Kerala High Court to seek its intervention in directing the Lakshadweep administration to issue entry permits. The administration was given 10 days to dispose of the applications by the two groups.

In a statement issued on Monday the administration declared the MPs had "... clearly mentioned the purpose of the visit is to have a fact check on the impact of administrative reforms... so there is every possibility of public gathering and such gathering may lead to Covid spread in the islands".

It also declared: "... political activities will certainly disturb the calm and peaceful atmosphere in the islands and it will be against the interest of the general public... security of the union territory".

It also cited a local police report that claimed "the proposed visit of MPs from Kerala... may activate local people, political parties/activists, social workers and people... (to take part in) opposition/agitation against the administration".

The administration also claimed that certain forms were not submitted correctly and an appplication fee had not been remitted.

Last week the administration refused permission to three Congress MPs; it claimed the visit of Hibi Eden, TN Prathpan, CR Rakesh Sharma might instigate violent agitations.

The Congress and Left MPs had sought permission to visit Lakshadweep, which has been seeing widespread unrest since a series of controversial orders by Praful Khoda Patel - the Administrator appointed by the central government.

One of these was the controversial removal of chicken, beef, and other meat from school menu and closing down of dairy farms.

Another is a draft detention law - the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities - which gives the administration sweeping powers to detain anyone for up to a year.

A third is the Lakshadweep Panchayat Regulation, which says candidates with more than two children cannot contest gram panchayat elections.

Besides the Congress and the CPM, Tamil Nadu's DMK, and other parties, as well as scores of BJP members in the island group, have protested against these measures.

The protests echoed in Kerala, where Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan demanded Mr Patel's removal and the Assembly passed a unanimous resolution demanding his recall and revoking of the orders.