PM Visit: Rhetoric is Enough!
By Zubair Ahmed
Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi is poised for a visit to Andaman and Nicobar Islands next month. Many records will be created and many others broken. Many firsts will be added to the history of the Islands. A 150-ft high flagmast will come up at a location on Port Blair coast commemorating the ‘first’ tri-colour flown by Netaji Subash Chandra Bose on 30th Dec 1943, while the Islands was under the occupation of Japanese forces. The tri-colour will have Gandhian Charkha instead of the 24-spoke Chakra on it.
Going by the current trend in our country, presently caught in the frenzy of renaming places, a few new names will be attributed to new found Islands. The Andaman Administration had sought suggestions from the public for names. A few enlightened citizens have already suggested names of prominent citizens who contributed to the social milieu in various capacities. Names need not be about persons. It can be about events, incidents that are etched in the memory of the Islands. There are enough names in the Islands itself, and there seems to be no need to look outward for it. But, nobody can speculate what’s in the mind of the rulers.
Of late, after the right wing coalition, NDA came into power; the fervor of jingoism has been blown to such an extent, that every word or deed is measured on the scale of an overblown balloon of nationalism. With 2019 approaching fast, there is an urgency of over-pumping the sentiments to harvest maximum benefit out of it. Yogi Adhityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh is on a name-changing spree. The demand of a relative of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose to rename the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as Shaheed and Swaraj Dweep is the latest one. There is no doubt; the MP will surely fail a quiz on the Islands, especially on the ‘Swaraj’ part of it, if he is put through one.
Appropriation of people, places and also events to inflate nationalistic fervor and take undue political advantage of the same without any change on the ground realities is the ‘latest’ national trend. It also helps in deflecting attention from the real issues. Big press releases and huge advertisements boasting unprecedented development on all fronts doesn’t really show up on the ground. One of the recent write-ups, a PR exercise in the government-run bulletin of Andaman and Nicobar Islands goes micro-level bragging the state of kilometers of urban and rural roads. Whether the roads, rural or urban, are smooth as the reams of newsprint printed upon is another issue. The common man is bombarded with proposals and plans, instead of completed projects. News about proposals to switch from fossil-fuel based power to eco-friendly power generation is repeated on a daily basis.
Many projects and schemes of the central government have no serious consequence on the Islands. Appropriating such schemes and showing it as achievements doesn’t change anything on the ground except earning brownies. For example, Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao was one such scheme, which was dear for some governmental agencies as well as NGOs to glass case their existence. There is no unusual change taking place, but going gaga over normal developmental activities is something, which is a new tendency. Nobody can clearly point out what is so ‘smart’ about Port Blair city, which ranks somewhere on the national scale. The rainwater which used to clog the city drains a decade ago still clogs and inundates the bazaar without any obvious change. Taking credit for the yet to land undersea fibre-optic cable, which started its journey a decade ago is no solace for the bandwidth-deprived digital service consumers who are overloaded by digital and online services launched every month. The perennial streams flowing from the tropical forests quench our thirst. It’s our inability to even tap those sources properly, but there is no scarcity in announcing new schemes and projects instead of executing them.
People have stopped ruing the inter-island ship connectivity. They are shown shipyards where new ships are under construction every year.
The government of the day seems to be in a competition in defining and redefining the adjectives - biggest, largest, tallest and first. Tallest statue of Sardar Patel on one hand in Gujarat, the Andaman Islands is going to witness a gala of superfluous changes and developments with the proposed visit of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi next month, who is supposed to hoist the flag commemorating the first Indian national flag being hoisted by Netaji Subash Chandra Bose on 30 Dec 1943. Erection of a 150-ft tall flag mask near to the coast of Port Blair town is one of the major events being planned. Whether the post will withstand the wind pressure of Andaman Sea is of course a technical issue, not a political or administrative one.
The recent revelation that the Islands archipelago contains not 540 but 836 Islands, including rocks, islets etc in itself is seen as a great achievement by the present dispensation. Earlier, out of 540 Islands, only 150 were named Islands. Other Islands remained un-named and it did not create any national or international embarrassment. Now, the Andaman Administration has sought suggestions from the public for 20 un-named Islands. Naming and renaming itself are ideological appropriation, symbolizing political goals. There has been a row every time naming and renaming of Islands were raised by various quarters. There is also a convenient method to renaming, where Havelock Island is excluded for the reason that the Island already features on the world tourism map. The exclusion is obviously not a nationalistic decision, but a market-driven one. There was a demand by a BJP MP in Rajya Sabha in 2017 to rename Havelock Island which is named after the British General Henry Havelock who fought the Indian patriots in 1857. The BJP MP, L Ganeshan had cited it to be an insult to the freedom fighters that the Island had been named after an East India Company General. A list of names of persons, who fought the British for different causes, including independence from the foreign yoke, is always suggested. Those who seek such cosmetic changes conveniently forget that almost all Islands once belonged to the aboriginal tribes and had their own original names. But, every name change signifies a social, cultural or political struggle for control.
In fact, nobody disregards the contribution of the freedom fighters, who fought the British and other foreign powers including the Japanese, and it’s not a matter of contest on who stands on top of the ladder. But, when one enters the Cellular Jail, the focus is on one person named Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who was imprisoned in the jail like many other hundreds of political prisoners and later released after he submitted a mercy petition. There is no evidence or documentary proof that the last cell on the first floor being assigned as Savarkar’s cell is truly the one where he was lodged. It’s the convenience that the cell provides for various reasons like the Sound and Light Show and its content that the cell is appropriately chosen.
To quote Prof Satadru Sen, in his epitome: “Disciplining Punishment”, he wrote:
“Thus, the structure of the prison both anticipated resistance from inmates, and provided for countermeasures. It is significant that the countermeasure suggested in this particular case involved moving disorderly prisoners central to the watchtower. The tower was the literal and metaphoric embodiment of the regime’s power within the Cellular Jail. The closer the prisoner had to the tower, the more secure was the regime’s control over him.”
Netaji Subash Chandra Bose is the second great revolutionary leader being appropriated by the present power, which gives them sufficient leverage to encash on various counts. His visit to the Islands during the Japanese occupation, as the Supremo of Azad Hind Fauz, an ally of Japan in its fight against the British, needs to be relooked from various angles. The Islands, which was under the occupation of British forces was abandoned by the British before the Japanese landed. The Islanders weren’t too cozy about Japanese occupation as they were accustomed to the ways of the British. In fact, a colony had already come up with mundane activities going on uninterrupted. While David Barrie, the notorious jailor was tormenting the revolutionaries inside the Cellular Jail, his daughter, a soft-spoken woman was teaching the local kids English in a school nearby.
When Netaji visited the Islands and hoisted a national flag declaring the territory free from the British rule, the Islands were virtually under the occupation of another foreign power, the Japanese. The dummy administrator from the Azad Hind Fauj appointed by the Japanese was nothing but eyewash, which the Islanders vouch for. The Japanese had their share of torture for the Islanders. The jail which used to lodge anti-British prisoners become home for anti-Japanese prisoners, who were Indians too. Netaji wasn’t taken to that part of the jail by the Japanese, where the Islanders were imprisoned. Today, when we find modern allies, we try to connect it with history and appropriate them according to convenience. Why should one have myopic view of foreign occupation by various forces? In fact, when Japan fell to the Allied Forces, and surrendered to the British, the people in the Islands lined up along the coast to welcome the British force back.
It isn’t yet out in the open whether the Administration has any plans to rename the Islands. But, there were marathon meetings on renaming Islands a couple of months back, it seems the proposal was later dropped for reasons unknown. In fact, the Islands have always been in the middle of such naming-renaming riddle, which seems to give a high for some.
The whole exercise of naming Islands and erection of 150-ft tall flag mast and hoisting of the tri-colour national flag with a Gandhian weaving charkha instead of the 24-spoke chakra on it have no real significance to the lives of common man, except being a political symbolic gesture.
In the election year, everyone will take this opportunity to attract some limelight. The internecine warfare inside the BJP between the President and the Member of Parliament is talk of the town. The State president of the party won’t leave any stone unturned to undermine his counterpart, whereas the Member of the Parliament has already locked horned with both his adversaries in the party as well the Lt Governor over trivial matters. What holds in surprise for both of them will be exciting to watch.
Undoubtedly, a Potemkein’s village will be erected soon around the spots the PM will pay a visit. The recce by various agencies to identify spots, where they presumed to be safe and away from trouble has been a norm of the day.
On a positive note, hope the Administration unlike Japanese, doesn’t treat Modi like Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, and take only to those spots of the city, where the picture is rosy with un-waterlogged roads and particularly on those stretches of urban road mentioned in the publicity article, which is without potholes, and to be specific, on the bridge connecting Haddo-Chatham. There are kilometres of potholes with a little stretch of roads splattered here and there.
A visit of any VVIP is a matter of pride for the Islands. But, aggrandizement will only bring more criticism and indifference. There is a genuine need to address the real issues – the rising unemployment, not jargons and acronyms like Standup India, Startup India, Make in India and many others. Act East Policy remains in papers and tax-financed visits. There is a serious need to look into the boundaries of the Islands, which is flawed from the day go. China can be a poll plank. If the Government of India is serious about development of the Islands, it needs serious efforts to balanced and sustainable exploitation of resources, which as of now seems a far cry. There is no dearth of rhetoric of eco-friendly development, whether it’s NITI Aayog or Island Deveopment Agency. One needs to see it happening on the ground. In short, the Islands need basic amenities that will cater to both tourists as well the local dwellers. Tourism should be a local affair, not a corporate one, which will only serve crony capitalism.
Hope the Administration rises above the Potemkein’s village and bring out real development to the Islands going beyond mere words, keeping in view the local sentiments, tribal concerns and foremost the pristine environment, in fact a god-gift.
The writer is a Island-based journalist and researcher
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