Amit Shah likely to visit Andaman & Nicobar Islands this week: Officials

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to visit the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for a day to commemorate the 116th anniversary of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's iconic poem Sagara Pran Talamala', officials said on Tuesday.

A senior official said they have received preliminary information about Shah's arrival either on December 11 or 12 at the Veer Savarkar International Airport, but the final itinerary is awaited.

Police sources said that according to initial information, Shah will attend an event on December 12 in Beodnabad in South Andaman, where a statue of Savarkar will be unveiled. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat is also scheduled to attend the ceremony.

In the evening, the home minister is likely to address a public gathering at the Dr B R Ambedkar Institute of Technology (DBRAIT) in Sri Vijaya Puram, where a song dedicated to Savarkar will be formally released.

"He is also supposed to inaugurate a newly built forensic science laboratory in Sri Vijaya Puram. All information we have received so far from the MHA is preliminary, and hopefully in a day or two we will receive his final itinerary," a senior police officer said.

Savarkar was imprisoned in the Cellular Jail (Kala Pani) in Port Blair (now known as Sri Vijaya Puram) by the British in 1911. He was kept in solitary confinement and subjected to hard labour during his incarceration in the penal colony.

This will be Shah's second visit to the archipelago. He last visited in January 2023 to commemorate the 126th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. On that trip, he was the chief guest at the culmination of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav Iconic Events Week', held from January 17 to 23, 2023, in Sri Vijaya Puram.