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The report appeared on www.guardian.co.uk, the website of The Observer’s sister publication The Guardian, on January 7, and was picked up by two Indian news channels. Massive outrage followed, the home ministry ordered a probe by the chief secretary and police chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the tribal affairs ministry sought a report, and the tourism ministry began its own inquiry.
“It is not clear when the video was shot; I understand it was in the last few years,” Chamberlain said in an email to The Indian Express. “There is no date stamp, but the file suggests a camera phone, which brings it closer to the present,” Chamberlain said.
The video or accompanying article on the web site did not say when the footage was shot or where it was sourced from. But Chamberlain said “it (the video) is certainly far more recent than the 10 years plucked from the air by the police”. The journalist, who visited the islands in December, declined to name his sources in order to “protect them”, but denied having paid for the video.
PTI quoted Andaman DGP S B Deol as saying the film was from “perhaps a 10-year-old video taken in 2002”. The Andaman police refuted Chamberlain’s assertion that the person who ordered the tribals to dance before the tourists allegedly for a bribe of 200 pounds was a policeman. The police said they had asked The Observer to apologize and disclose the name of the videographer.
Ajay Saxena, tribal secretary of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said, “It is an old video, an old story picked up by ignorant journalists and blown out of proportion.”
Denis Giles, editor of the Andaman Chronicle whom Chamberlain quoted in his article, said the video was old, and “things have improved in the past few years”.
“Many such videos have been available in the market for past several years but these are old,” Giles said. “There has been a crackdown on mischievous elements in the recent past.”
Giles added, however, that despite these steps, “the number of safaris has increased over the years, and many a time, rules are broken, sometimes with the connivance of those entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the tribe”.
Chamberlain said, “This is not to say that the people at the top don’t care or are not trying to protect the Jarawas. I think they are doing their best. They are being undermined by a majority who regard the Jarawa a tourist attraction from which they can make money”.
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They know best what is good for them. We have no business to interfere with their way of life. Mahatma Gandhi's scanty dress and that of Veena Malik are reactions to different situations. Over the course of time we get used to it.
the government over reacts so as to save its face, but that's Andaman. Its true that charity starts at home, and unfortunately the opposite of charity too starts at home. I have seen poor children in Delhi, running behind tourists to get a pie, but ironically, they never run behind the Indians (us) yes, one can think of the reasons. And, tell me a field for which the central government has a ministry for, and the country is thriving in that field. Agriculture, Education, Petroleum, Tribal stuff, E affairs, I affairs, and any remaining, but failing.