Praful Khoda Patel faces protests in Lakshadweep: Ex-Gujarat home minister is no stranger to controversies

Praful Khoda Patel, the administrator of the Lakshadweep islands, is currently facing vociferous opposition barely five months after taking over the post. While Opposition parties are up in arms against a slew of measures he has taken, the issue also took social media by storm as #SaveLakshadweep trended on Twitter. The protests have been sparked by a draft preventive detention law, changes in land development regulations and a cow slaughter ban, among other issues. For Patel, the agitations come shortly on the back of another row over the alleged suicide of Dadra and Nagar Haveli MP Mohan Delkar. Here is an overview of the controversies that have marked Patel’s various political and administrative stints. Protests in Lakshadweep Several prominent political leaders in Lakshadweep  have urged the Centre to recall Patel. These include Lakshadweep MP from the NCP Mohammed Faizal and his colleagues from neighbouring Kerala — TN Prathapan (Congress), Elamaram Kareem (CPI-M) and E T Mohammed Basheer (Muslim League). They have alleged that Patel unilaterally lifted restrictions on the use of alcohol in the Muslim-majority islands, banned beef products, and demolished fishermen’s sheds built on the coastal areas, saying they violated the Coast Guard Act. The ban on beef has been proposed under the draft Lakshadweep Animal Preservation Regulations, as noted by The Indian Express. The draft law stipulates that no person can directly or indirectly sell, keep, store, transport, offer or expose for sale or buy beef or beef products in any form anywhere in Lakshadweep. The proposed ban has caused unrest in the Union Territory, where Muslims constitute over 90 percent of the population. A stringent law ostensibly aimed at improving law and order has also caused anger in Lakshadweep, where crime rates are very low. Under the proposed law — called the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Regulation — a person can be detained without public disclosure for up to a year. Elamaram Kareem, Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala, has written to President Ram Nath Kovind, alleging that all the orders were issued by the Administrator with an ulterior motive to destroy the traditional life and cultural diversity of the people of Lakshadweep. All the regulations were promulgated without an iota of consideration towards the people or their choice of food and livelihood, he alleged. “The undemocratic and anti-people regulation in the name of Animal Preservation, which intends to ban slaughter, transportation, selling or buying of beef products, is one among such orders. This is a blatant onslaught on the people, who depend upon dairying and growing of bovines as a means of livelihood,” Kareem said in the letter. Patel’s past controversies Praful Khoda Patel, a former BJP leader, has served as the home minister of Gujarat when Narendra Modi was the state’s chief minister. He had won the 2007 Gujarat assembly election for the first time from Himmat Nagar in north Gujarat. Patel became the Gujarat home minister in 2010, after Amit Shah was arrested in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. He held the post till 2012. Subsequently, he became the administrator of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. His appointment was a break from the earlier precedent of naming IAS officers for the posts, as noted by The Print. Patel was caught in a major controversy earlier this year after the alleged suicide of Dadra and Nagar Haveli MP Mohan Delkar. The MP, in his purported suicide note, had named Patel, along with officials of the Union Territory administration. Delkar’s son Abhinav has alleged that his father was being “harassed” by Patel to cough up Rs 25 crore or face a false case under the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act. The Congress had strongly criticised Patel at the time, demanding that he be immediately relieved of his duties and cases be filed against him for murder and abetment to suicide. Earlier, Patel had been in the news due to an Election Commission directive before the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The panel had directed him to withdraw a notice he had issued to then Dadra & Nagar Haveli collector Kannan Gopinathan for “not complying” with his instructions on various “official works", an article in The Print notes. With inputs from PTI