Modi in Lakshadweep to promote Tata’s resorts?
While major portions of the media would like to tell us that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the Lakshadweep Islands as a response to growing xenophobia among the government elites of Maldives, the real motive behind the heavily photographed tour may be something else.
The Lakshadweep Islands have never been promoted by the Government of India for tourism, until recently when the prime minister decided to go on a trip there by himself.
He went snorkelling and walked on the beach, which were all documented through photographs and short videos and released to the public through his social media handles, and then amplified by thousands by others.
But the prime minister didn’t care when the locals of the island chain joined in protest in the ‘Save Lakshadweep’ campaign. The campaign began in 2021 against the then-recently-appointed administrator Praful Khoda Patel’s loosening of travel restrictions, leading to a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases, and the lifting of alcohol restrictions, banning beef and removing meat from the school Mid-day Meal Scheme, which many in the Muslim-majority island chain alleged as the administration’s attempt at implementing a Hindutva agenda.
Patel also proposed several policy adjustments, including directing the port authorities to sever connections with the Beypore and Cochin ports in Kerala, and redirecting all maritime activities to New Mangalore Port; instructing all dairy farms managed by the Animal Husbandry Department to cease operations, auction off the cattle and import all dairy products from the Gujarat-based Amul; and demolishing coastal sheds belonging to fishermen, in a fishing-dependent island chain, citing violations of the Coast Guard Act.
Prime Minister Modi did not care to spend a word to address the situation then.
Now, coincidentally, the Tata Group company Taj has announced two resorts in Lakshadweep’s Suheli and Kadmat.
The Taj in Suheli will have 110 rooms including 60 villas on the beach and 50 water villas and the one in Kadmat will comprise 75 beach villas and 35 water villas.
However, what has apparently not been considered is the environmental impact: Kadmat, a coral island with a large lagoon, also known as Cardamom Island, is a marine protected area with seagrass beds, which are a nestling ground for marine turtles. The resorts are nearing completion now.
The question arises as to what did it really take the prime minister, who didn’t care much about massive ecological damage to the ‘Jewel of the Ocean’, to take a trip down there and promote tourism—a response to the situation in the Maldives or business interests of a private conglomerate?
