Sedition case against Lakshadweep filmmaker Aisha Sultana

The Lakshadweep police have booked filmmaker Aisha Sultana for sedition and hate speech under the Indian Penal Code for calling the Union territory’s administrator Praful Patel a “bio-weapon” on a debate show on Malayalam television channel Media One TV.

The complaint was filed by the Lakshadweep unit head of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), C Abdul Khader Haji. Aisha Sultana was commenting on a series of controversial decisions by the administrator.

Patel’s decision to lift the COVID-19 protocol has been criticized by many as the reason for the high number of positive cases in the archipelago in the second wave. After reporting zero cases for 11 months, the territory reported its first coronavirus case in January and now has over 9,000 active cases.

Explaining her stand, the filmmaker said in a Facebook post, “The administrator Patel’s weapon against Lakshadweep people are a bigger weapon than the bio-weapon in interfering [with] the freedom we gained from the British. What I meant is not against the Union government in yesterday’s Media One channel debate. The new draconian changes imposed against the natives of Lakshwadweep by the administrator Patel effects the biology of each individual. The COVID protocol altered as per the administrator’s order is against the natives. If someone feels [there’s] any other meaning, it’s not like that and I never meant it. Jai Hind (sic).” 

The draft Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation (LDAR) 2021 and the Lakshadweep Prevention of Anti-Social Activities (PASA) introduced by Patel have also been strongly opposed by the people of the Union territory.

Recently, some civil servants and several politicians wrote to prime minister Narendra Modi and president Ram Nath Kovind, urging them to scrap these policies.