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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

© Copyright 2008 Malladi Rama Rao. All rights reserved.

By Malladi Rama Rao

Rameswaram, the holy town on the shores of Bay of Bengal, saw fishermen in an angry mood on Sunday, September 28. Four youth, Murugan, Doraisamy, Ramamurthy and Lingam went out early that day to catch fish. None of them had a boat of their own. They borrowed a boat of Valivittan, who preferred to remain at home. The weather was fine, in deed, very pleasant. And they had a fairly large catch. Naturally these youngsters, who had not seen the inside of a school, were in high spirits. Murugan started humming his favourite tune from the latest Rajani flick. Suddenly, a burst of gun fire snuffed out the life out of the 32 –year-old. He collapsed with bullets hitting his back twice. As his friends brought home his body, a pall of gloom descended on their hamlet, Bagyanathapuram.

Said Doraisamy: “We were fishing in the deep sea near Katchatheevu. Suddenly Sri Lankan navy boats encircled us and opened fire. We were already on our way home. But they chased us and fired at us”.

How sure these illiterate fishermen are that the firing came from the Sri Lankan navy? Already the Sri Lankan Mission in Chennai has asserted that the island’s fledgling navy was not in the vicinity of the area where Murugan came under fire. In fact, the media friendly, Deputy High Commissioner of Sri Lanka, P M Amsa, has gone out of his way to ‘clear’ the air. As reported by The Hindu, Amsa contacted Vice Admiral Wasantha Karanagoda, Commander of Sri Lanka Navy in Colombo, who told him that an ‘oral’ inquiry was carried out and their (SL Navy) personnel were ‘not involved’.

But the victims in Bagyanathapuram are unconvinced. How can you deny what we had seen, they argue, and in an expression of solidarity, 3000 fishermen and 700 boats stayed off the sea. This is the second strike by fishermen in three months.

Records with Rameswaram police and local fishermen association show that attacks on Indian fishermen are not new. There are allegations of SL Navy harassing Indian fishermen in their ‘traditional waters’, which in local parlance means the area in and around Katchatheevu. Amsa is, however, always quick to remark that the possibility of these incidents may have been orchestrated by a third force with vested interests, such as the LTTE, in order “to tarnish the reputation of the Sri Lanka Navy and strain the long standing and warm relations between India and Sri Lanka”, cannot be rule out.

There are not many takers for the Amsa claim amongst the political parties of Tamilnadu. It is not surprising given the emotional quotient of the issue whatever be the views of Colombo based political commentators like Janaka Perera, who spew venom at the very mention of Dravidian parties and Katchatheevu. ‘Objectivity, my foot’, he and his ilk appears to believe, going by the tone and tenor of their writings.

So let me turn to a NGO. Agni Subramanian, Coordinator of the Chennai based Organisation for Protection of Indian Rights Abroad (OPIRA), has no political axe to grind even by the yardstick of Perera. He has led a delegation to Governor Surjit Singh Barnala of Tamilnadu with an SOS from five families-their bread earners are languishing in Anuradhapura jail. Arul Sahayam told the governor that youngest son Joseph Bath (16) went for fishing fun trip, with his brother Ignatius (20) on May 26 and had not returned home.

The Deccan Chronicle reported (June 17, 2008): “With tears in his eyes, Arul Sahayam said when Joseph went with his brother and 21 others to the sea for fishing on May 26, they were caught by the Sri Lankan navy between Katchatheevu and Neduntheevu. While the Lankan navy released 18 of them on June 4, the other five including Joseph and Ignatius are still with the Lankan navy”. The Lankan navy took all the fishermen, including the teenaged student, blindfolded to a place in Thalaimannar and detained on the charge of transporting ‘black powder’ for LTTE, which they denied.

Agni Subramanian met Joseph in the jail. He was told that the boys were arrested, and produced before a judge. Sri Lankan navy officers told the judge that a ‘black substance’ was recovered from below the fishing vessel. Subramanian’s information is that 43 Indians were at present lodged in Sri Lankan jails on ‘false’ drug charges.

Neither Murugan’s nor Joseph’s is an isolated case that has come to cast a shadow over India- Sri Lanka relations. Every fisherman family of Rameswaram and adjoining areas has a story of how inhumanly the Lankan Navy has been treating them, firing at their boats indiscriminately and detaining at will, besides seizing their catch. Some incidents like the two ‘arrests’ in January 2003 are still fresh in their memories.

36 fishermen were taken into custody on the charge of ‘trespassing’ in the first week. Two weeks later, catch (prawns) worth Rs. 60,000 was ‘seized’. After another two weeks (in February) a Lankan Navy vessel hit a mechanized boat owned by Rameswaram fishermen as they were fishing near the international boundary line. A few days later 16 Indian fishermen were arrested and their four trawlers seized again on the charge that they had crossed the water boundary line.

These examples only serve to illustrate the intensity of the problem, which continues to manifest at regular intervals. It also underscores why the political class of Tamilnadu are unanimous that ‘grave’ injustice had been done to their state under the 1974 Katchatheevu agreement. Demands for abrogating the treaty are also being voiced of late by mavericks like Vaiko while Left leaders like D Raja opine that India should ‘re-open’ the treaty signed by two good friends, Indira Gandhi and Sirimavo Bandaranayke.

Muthavel Karunanidhi, the DMK chief minister and his arch rival, Jayalalithaa Jayaram of AIADMK, who ruled the state before him, have been telling Delhi to do something so that the poor, illiterate fishermen are not harassed and victimized in the Gulf of Mannar. More so as the Tribune of Chandigarh points out (Editorial March 8, 2003): ‘Sri Lanka has been honouring the agreement more in its breach than in implementing it’ and as the local (Rameswaram) fishermen complain that they were not taken into confidence at the time of signing the treaty. Public opinion is something no government in a democracy can afford to ignore. Certainly as records show that at least 300 fishermen died since the agreement was initialled

I am certain that both the above observations will invite a howl of protests from my Sri Lankan friends and I am sure they will hurl at me their choicest abuses. In recent weeks and months, many Sri Lankan commentators have become ‘extra sensitive’ over Katchatheevu. They have been straining their every nerve to run down Tamilnadu leaders for the crime of claiming that India had gifted the 285.2 –acre island just 10 miles north east to Rameswaram to Sri Lanka. Many of them have thundered: “Where is the word ‘gifted’ or ‘ceded’ in the agreement”. I concede their point. Neither of these two words figure in the text of the treaty. But what is a treaty after all? Not a piece of paper to be brandished as a sword on high seas that too before people who are unlettered.

Veteran journalist Philip Fernando (presently settled in Los Angles, USA), who had the privilege of reporting on the treaty (in the work) to The Daily News, makes the point when he observes that India and Sri Lanka resolved the issue of Katchatheevu in a ‘spirit of compromise and give and take’. Well, indeed all agreements are exercises in some give and take.

That was the reason why Article 5 of the agreement clearly states: ‘Indian fishermen and pilgrims will enjoy access to visit Katchatheevu as hitherto and will not be required by Sri Lanka to obtain travel documents or visas for these purposes’. And Article 6 records unambiguously: ‘The Vessels of India and Sri Lanka will enjoy each other’s waters such rights as they have traditionally enjoyed therein’.

The issues thrown up by fishermen and Katchatheevu are primarily humanitarian in nature, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told President Mahinda Rajapakse, when they met on the sidelines of SAARC summit in Colombo. Viewing the issue through any other prism will greatly undermine the amity between the two countries out of a fit of misplaced bravado. Rhetoric of any kind has the power to sway emotions of the mud heads which should be checked by the level headed.

Arguments like ‘the Indian fishermen were poachers and hence deserve no consideration’ reflect a mindset that is neither here nor there. Maritime boundaries are wonderful to look at on paper and in strategy sessions but these make no sense for a fisherman even if he is on a mechanized boat. The answer to the problem is to help equip the Indian fishermen with instruments that help them get the alert signal once they are near the boundary line. Tamilnadu government in close coordination with the Indian coast guard is already on the job. This work cannot be accomplished overnight. It takes time. Till such time it is completed, patience should be the by-word. .

Various suggestions have been thrown up in recent days to end the Katchatheevu impasse. These range from India retrieving the island (World Tamil Confederation) to taking the island on a lease in perpetuity solely for fishing, drying of nets and pilgrimage (Jayalalithaa Jayaram, AIADMK leader). Better and practical option would be a bilateral agreement under which Colombo agrees to give license to Indian fishermen to fish around Katchatheevu. It will be in synch with tradition and modern times.

Old timers will recall that licensed fishing is not new to India and Sri Lanka. The 1976 agreement that had demarcated the maritime boundary provided for license to Sri Lankan vessels to fish in the Wadge Bank, which is located to the South of Cape Comorin but outside the territorial waters of India under certain terms and conditions for a limited period.

The point to remember is fishermen are not criminals. They are not armed. Treating them inhumanly or naval personnel opening fire on them brings no credit to a civilized society and its government whatever be its spectacular achievements on any other front.

About the Author

Malladi Rama Rao is an analyst and writer on the Indian political scene and geo-political and security issues of South Asia. He directs a Weekly Feature Service in English, Syndicate Features, in colloboration with his wife Vaniram. He is also the India Editor of Asian Tribune.

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