Angling for ‘Katch’!

(August 04, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha has said that her party would approach the Supreme Court to challenge the validity of India seceding Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka.

Her threat comes in the wake of the Sri Lankan Navy repeatedly harassing the fishermen from Tamilnadu.

The Indian fishermen are regularly shot at by the Lankan Navy and hundreds of fishermen have lost their lives so far.

Many of them are being arrested and jailed repeatedly for the petty mistake of getting into the Sri Lankan waters while on fishing missions.

The Indo-Sri Lankan Accord signed between Indhra Gandhi and Sirimavo Bandaranayake in 1974 lead to the ceding of Katchatheevu Islands to Sri Lanka, while retaining the fishing rights for the Indian fishermen in and around the island.

They dry their fishing nets also there. The fishermen from Tamilnadu have also the right to go on pilgrimage to worship a shrine there.

This has been going on smoothly till the time of eruption of ethnic conflict in the Island nation in the 80s.

Since then the fishermen from Tamilnadu have been at the receiving end.

All the political parties of the State have been protesting the highhandedness of the Sri Lankan Navy and India, understanding the predicament of Sri Lanka, has been too patient and tolerant for the last two decades.

Now, in its final onslaught on the LTTE, Sri Lanka has placed mines in the waters between Katchathevu and Neduntheevu and warned the Tamilnadu fishermen not to enter their waters.

The State authorities have also convened a meeting and advised the fishermen not to cross International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).

But, the fishermen have some practical problems caused by nature, which are beyond their control, leading to their crossing the IMBL and entering Sri Lankan waters inadvertently.

Sri Lankan Navy has a peculiar problem of identifying the boats and sometimes they fire at the boats under the assumption that they might belong to the LTTE.

It is quite understandable while considering the island nation’s severe crisis. It is also true that some of Tamilnadu’s fishermen, in greed for money, attempt to help the LTTE in smuggling arms, ammunition, diesel and other materials and that even the LTTE fires at Tamilnadu fishermen and puts the blame on Sri Lankan Navy.

Tamilnadu fishermen are certainly in a catch-22 situation, caught in between LTTE and Sri Lankan Navy, getting hurt and losing their lives.

As Katchatheevu is at a short distance, they cannot refrain from going near it. Avoiding that area may also mean missing out on lucrative fish catch. So, the onus lies on the central government to come to their rescue.

While challenging the ceding of Katchathevu is maintainable in the Court of Law, as Indhra Gandhi had gone ahead with it without getting the nod from parliament, attempting to retrieve it from Sri Lanka at the present circumstances may prove to be counter productive for India, as security threat looms large over it. In this kind of a scenario, it would be better to consider the suggestion made by Jayalalitha, and take the Katchatheevu ‘on a lease in perpetuity’.

Otherwise the Indian government must tell Sri Lanka in unequivocal terms to stick to the Indhra-Bandaranayake treaty in letter and spirit and allow fishermen from India up to Katchatheevu.

It must also ensure full protection to them by deploying Indian Naval forces or the Coast Guard. (News Today Editorial)
- Sri Lanka Guardian