Vijay Sappani
The recent killings of four fishermen from Tamil Nadu (TN), allegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy, brought into focus the age-old tensions between India and the island nation over their respective fishing communities and their activities in the Palk Bay. The positions of the Centre and the TN Government run contrary to their publicly championed cause of Sri Lankan Tamils. Even as they highlight the excesses of Colombo’s Sinhalese-majority Government against Tamils, Indian leaders have remained silent on another issue that has dire economic costs for Tamil fishing communities there: The poaching of fish in Lankan waters by TN fishers. This conflict between the two fishing communities is a deep-rooted one. Indian and Lankan Tamils have been fishing in the Palk Bay’s shallow waters for centuries. In 1974 and 1976, India and Lanka signed pacts demarcating the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) in the Bay of Bengal, the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar. India also ceded the Katchatheevu island to Lanka, which caused heartburn in TN fishing communities. The bilateral move made it effectively illegal for Indian fishermen to access areas they were used to operating in. In the 1960s, the Centre subsidised powerful motorboats that could drop weighted nylon nets to the seabed. This method, called trawling, created a lucrative fishing business and helped boost India’s seafood export. It also depleted fish habitat on the Indian side of the IMBL. By the 1980s, at the height of the Sri Lankan civil war, Indian trawlers were commonplace in the island country’s waters where fish were still plenty. At the time, the Lankan Navy restricted fishing activities in established security zones to prevent rebel takeover.
As the war ended and Lankan fishermen ventured again into the Palk Bay, they were challenged by the far superior Indian trawlers who cost Lanka approximately $40-$60 million each year. The Sri Lankan Navy was quick to defend the country’s sovereignty and over 10 years it apprehended hundreds of Indian fishers who “infiltrated” its maritime territory. This issue has been a constant thorn in Indo-Lankan ties and between the Centre and TN. However, with careful deliberation and stakeholder involvement, constructive solutions can be reached. First, the Indian Navy should increase patrolling on its side and Lanka should unconditionally release arrested Indian fishers as a goodwill gesture. Second, India, Sri Lanka, TN, leaders of the fishing community and union representatives across the Bay must engage with each other to develop alternatives to trawling. A ban on decades-old methods will be ineffective without other options to rely on. Third, India and Lanka could establish a framework to licence fishing in each other’s waters for a fixed period. This, however, depends on the ban on trawling so that Indian and Lankan fishers are on a par. Last, both countries can turn to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to resolve outstanding disputes, like they did in the past. At the crux of the issue rest important questions of Tamil identity. Indian leaders never waste an opportunity to defend Lankan Tamils for political gains, but they actively and vociferously opposed Tamil actor Vijay Sethupathi playing the role of Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan in the latter’s biopic. Sadly, Lanka has accused Muralitharan, an Indian-origin Tamil, of being complicit in the killing of Tamils even though he has been vocal about his painful experiences during the civil war when he lost his father. The Sethupati controversy was only the most recent example of selective sympathies politicians and the TN film industry harbour for their Lankan brethren.The absence of indignation at the loss of Lankan livelihood reflects contemporary Indian grandstanding: Convenient opposition to perceived subjugation of identities. Instead of endlessly criticising Lanka’s Sinhalese majority, TN politicians must lead credible policy directives that encourage trade, promote quality education, cater to healthcare needs, and ascertain economic independence among Lankan Tamils. The Tamil film industry, on the other hand, can simply let actors act.
(The writer is a Board member at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Canada. The views expressed are personal.)
