Fishermen in the Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu launched an indefinite strike from Friday in protest against the arrest of fishermen and impounding of their trawlers by the Sri Lankan Navy. According to P. Sesu Raja, leader of one of the fishermens’ associations, 77 Tamil Nadu fishermen and more than 100 boats are in the custody of the Sri Lankan authorities. About 850 trawlers have been anchored at the Rameswaram fishing jetty. These trawlers employ more than 4,000 fishermen who will be staying away from the Palk Strait to draw the attention of the authorities to their plight. But what is interesting is their declaration that they would launch an indefinite fast from July 28 to press their demand that the Sri Lankan government should immediately release the arrested fishermen as well as the trawlers seized by them. On July 27, which is the first death anniversary of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the former President of India, the fishermen will pay homage to him and the next day they would begin their indefinite fast. The major paradox is that the late Abdul Kalam, born and brought up in Rameswaram, was totally against any kind of confrontation with Sri Lanka. An aeronautical engineer, Kalam had always exhorted the people of Tamil Nadu to find out alternate livelihoods instead of poaching from the other side of the International Maritime Boundary Line. He pointed out that there were lot of opportunities and potential in deep sea fishing as well as caged aquaculture. Yet another aspect to be noted in the whole scenario is that in spite of the dozens of letters written by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa to Prime Minister Narendra Modi complaining about the arrest of Tamil Nadu fishermen and seizure of their boats by the Sri Lankan Navy, the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard, two bodies entrusted with the security of India’s maritime boundaries, have chosen to ignore the claims of Jayalalithaa and the fishermen from Tamil Nadu. This shows that the Government of India is not in the least bothered about what is happening on the Sri Lankan side of the IMBL. If reports coming from Chennai’s Fort Saint George (seat of power of the Tamil Nadu government) are any indication, the Jayalalithaa Government is planning to adopt a resolution in the Tamil Nadu assembly censuring the Sri Lankan Government for its high handed activities while dealing with fishermen from the State. It is another thing that the resolution would not have any value or significance as State governments could adopt any resolutions to suit their political convenience. The Union Government is sure to ignore such resolutions with the contempt which they deserve. Jaya Palayan, President of the Federation of South Indian Fishermens’ Associations, the largest fishermens’ union in South India, said the Tamil Nadu fishermen are to be blamed for the unpleasant incidents happening on the Sri Lankan side of the IMBL. Though Kachchathivu was ceded to Sri Lanka in 1975, neither the then central Government or the State Government took measures to educate the Tamil Nadu fishermen about the seriousness of the accord. The fishermen should have been told that the region which they used to go fishing in for ages had been ceded to the island nation and it was no more their territory. But this did not happen and the fishermen are still under the impression that the Palk Straits continue to be their domain, said Jaya Palayan. Another interesting point to note is that the Tamil Nadu government has not released the names of the owners of the trawlers seized by the Sri Lankan Navy. While the fishermen’s imbroglio between the two countries continues without any sign of restraint, a recent interesting development went unnoticed. The Government of India asked fishermen from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka to keep off the territorial waters of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. In May 2016, 18 fishermen from Kerala and Tamil Nadu were held by the British Navy for entering the restricted waters of Diego Garcia. The Government of India had to lobby hard to get the fishermen released from the custody of the British Navy. When they returned to Kerala, the fishermen were issued a stern warning by the Government of Kerala and since then no fisherman has dared to venture out into the region. The hypocrisy of the Tamil Nadu politicians towards the Sri Lankan Tamils could be understood from the differences in their preaching and practice. There are nearly 600 engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu offering 200,000 seats in various branches of engineering. In the last four or five years, most of these seats have gone a begging as there are no takers. The last academic year (2015-2016) saw almost a 100,000 engineering seats going waste as there were no applicants. This year there are only 131, 182 students who have been declared eligible for admission to engineering seats though there are 192,009 seats available. With 60,827 seats certain to remain vacant, isn’t it possible to offer these seats to Tamil students from Sri Lanka? Most of the engineering colleges and arts and science colleges in Tamil Nadu are owned by politicians owing their allegiance to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) or the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Since both these parties are vocal about their love for Lankan Tamils whom they describe as victims of ethnic discrimination, why can’t they offer at least a 1,000 seats to children of Lankan Tamils?
The Sunday Times Sri Lanka