‘Saddam Beach’— the signboard with the executed Iraqi dictator’s picture greets visitors to Kavarathi, the headquarters of the Union Territory of Lakshadweep. Similar nomenclature on the other side of the Arabian Sea - in Kozhikode in Kerala - had hogged news space. The island doesn’t come under media radars but for its tourism potential. Despite familiar signposts, Lakshadweep has little in common with Kerala as far as politics is concerned. Elections to the lone parliamentary seat and ten panchayats are keenly contested by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, allies at national level. A poster in red letters, pasted by the nascent branch committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), blames the Congress-led Union government for everything from Israel’s attack on Gaza to erratic ship services to anomalies in granting Scheduled Tribe status to
... read more
