Andaman’s Inner Fault Lines
The recent Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) introduced by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has sparked widespread protest in the Northeast over its repercussions on the demography of border states. A similar conflict with troubling parallels is brewing in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where a strong demand for an Inner Line Permit (ILP) regime has been voiced by local communities concerned about the growing number of migrants settling in the archipelago.
In an emotional remark during his recent visit to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that there is no difference between the islands and the mainland, and that for him they are one and the same. The statement did not go down well with many local residents, given the growing discontent over migrants from the mainland competing for the scarce job opportunities and resources available here.
Last year, this disgruntlement took the shape of a movement when a joint action forum (JAF) was formed by locals demanding an ILP to check the influx of new migrants. The movement was led by the oldest settlers’ group, the Local Born Association (LBA), headed by Dr Prem Kishan (himself a descendant of a ‘penal settler’). The movement also had its detractors, who claimed that the demand was unconstitutional. The ruling BJP initially supported the cause, but soon changed course, demanding other instruments such as the domicile certificate and the National Population Register identity proofs. BJP MP Bishnu Pada Ray declared that the ILP was against his party’s ideology.
The issue is bringing some long-standing undercurrents of ethnic rivalry to a head with some protesters raising slogans against ‘Bangladeshis’. In fact, Bengali islanders have long been a dominant demographic here, and the islands’ MP (whether Congress or BJP) has traditionally been from this community. There is a widespread perception here that Bengali migration has been tacitly encouraged and that encroachments of public land by Bengalis are swiftly regularised. Even the recent renaming of islands announced on Modi’s visit is viewed by many as pandering to Bengalis.
Meanwhile, a parallel campaign by the Bengali community, which felt targeted by the JAF, forced both the Congress and the BJP to go silent on the issue. The community, formed the Bengali Joint Action Forum (BJAF), and tried to outdo the JAF with bigger rallies and public meetings, most recently with a show of strength on January 23, Subhas Chandra Bose’s birthday. While most political parties have been at pains to maintain their distance from the ILP issue, the Trinamool Congress has entered the fray with a more openly pro-Bengali stance.
The islands, which have extensive forest land, have reportedly seen large-scale encroachments by migrants, often in connivance with authorities, with politicians turning a blind eye. It’s notable that the Supreme Court in May 2002, while hearing a petition on mass-scale logging and uncontrolled plundering of natural resources in the islands, had accepted the recommendations made by the Prof. Shekhar Singh Commission. The commission had suggested regulations to check population influx. It had recommended that to prevent any further encroachment and rampant immigration, the administration should regulate the entry of people to the area within three months by having the islands declared as an Inner Line Area.
The elections may have pushed the issue off the agenda, but Kishan says the demand for Inner Line Area restrictions cannot be ignored whether or not there is political support for it. While maintaining that the new factor of the Citizenship Amendment Bill will only aggravate the problem of a migrant influx, he reiterated that the movement is not against any community. For the moment, it seems that the BJP’s nationalist stance and the interests of a commercial ‘development lobby’ keen on migrant labour have stymied the demand for ILP restrictions. But the wider communities of historic migrants are unlikely to remain silent on the perceived encroachment on their fragile islands.