Mumbai: Targeting the Centre over the set of new regulations in Lakshadweep, Shiv Sena on Saturday warned of “communal tension”, adding that such moves could create “unrest” in the country. Sena leader Sanjay Raut asked why that there is no ban on cow slaughter in Goa and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states in the North East, like the one proposed by the Lakshadweep administrator Praful K Patel. Patel, a former Gujarat BJP leader and the state’s former home minister, is facing criticism on the slew of regulations he has brought in Lakshadweep where he was made the administrator by the Centre. The new regulations have drawn the ire of the locals as well as political parties including Sena’s allies in Maharashtra—Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Sena’s RajyaSabha MP added that the decision that is made in the Union Territories and the islands must be taken after taking the locals into confidence. “If there is unrest then the whole country has to pay the price for it. And if somebody is trying to create communal tension in such Union Territory then it is wrong,” Raut said. Sena mouthpiece Saamana also published an editorial on Saturday and said that Patel’s “arbitrariness” is now seen in the island after Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Patel was named in the suicide note of Dadra Nagar Haveli MP Mohan Delkar who committed suicide earlier this year in Mumbai. His regulations include a new development plan, proposed cow slaughter ban, the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act, which allows the police to detain a person without any public disclosure for a period of one year, and the draft panchayat notification, where a person with more than two children is disqualified from being a panchayat member.

Raut said that three is no opposition to development in Lakshadweep but added, “But the law and rules have to be uniform for everybody. There is a new regulation of beef in Lakshadweep, which is fine but Goa doesn’t have aban, neither does Kerala or North-Eastern states. If such a law comes only in Lakshadweep, then many questions crop up in the minds of the people. Therefore, whether the administrator is a political appointee or a civil servant, if we do not take step cautiously then we will face unrest in the coming days.”