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The issue of Inner Line Permit (ILP) in the state of Nagaland surfaced again during the interaction of the Chief Electoral Officer with the members of Naga civil bodies with regard to “Illegal Influx and Floating Population with special focus on Purification of Electoral Roll in Nagaland” on the 8th of May in Dimapur. According to the report, in the interactive session the civil bodies instead resolved to urge the Govt. of Nagaland to extend the Inner Line Permit coverage to the entire territorial jurisdiction of Nagaland. It indeed is a notable resolution and an appropriate time for a brief review of the ILP to assist us to move ahead so that we are not caught unawares with unforeseen ramifications.
The Inner Line was first implemented by the British through the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation in 1873. It primarily was imposed by the British to protect their interest in the region, by not allowing persons from the rest of India to enter these areas without permission. Clause 5 of the regulation reads thus;
“Any rubber, wax, ivory or other jungle-product, (or any book, diary, manuscript, map, picture, photograph, film, curio or article of religious or scientific interest) found in the possession of any person convicted of any offence under this Regulation may be confiscated to Government by an order to be passed at the time of conviction by the Magistrate.”
During the formation of the state of Nagaland, the ILP had a new objective; to protect the tribal customs and traditions of the tribal people whereas the economic and trading aspects of the ILP, the one main reason of the British for implementing it was completely overlooked. It also was a very secure mechanism for the government of India as the North Eastern states covered by ILP had long stretches of international borders. It correctly checked the movement of people from the rest of India to the region and lessening the National Security concerns at least on face value.
By restricting its own citizens entry to certain areas might have helped protecting the tribal customs and traditions to some extent but trade and commerce was always greatly affected. The 125 plus years of Christianity and Western Education still has not obliterated the tribal customs and traditions from Nagaland.
The issue of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh via Assam should not be the reason to extend the cover of ILP to all the jurisdiction of Nagaland, most importantly Dimapur the trading hub of the state with its diverse population and non-Naga indigenous inhabitants. The cut off date of 1971 for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam is a very essential point of reference and the decision of government of Assam to give precedence to the NRC before Aaadhar also provides another level of protection for filtering out the illegal immigrants. Nagaland only has to ensure that the list of indigenous inhabitants who settled before the statehood is maintained and guarded so that fake names do not creep in. ILP should not be used as the easier method of cleansing the electoral roll when the cleansing of electoral roll is always possible without implementing the ILP across Nagaland.
ILP is not the ticket to someone’s citizenship; it is the ignorance of the enforcing agencies that has brought this confusion. ILP is meant for citizens of India to enter the state but everyone possessing an ILP may not be a citizen of India and the authorities need only the mechanism to detect, revoke the ILP, detain and deport. With or without ILP illegal immigrants find illegal ways to stay in Nagaland. On the other hand genuine citizens of India who come to Dimapur for education, health services, social services, trade and commerce will be un-necessarily harassed.