No Anchor For A Sinking Catamaran
By Kumar David -January 19, 2014
Prof Kumar David
Impecunious fishermen drown in deep waters: No anchor for a sinking catamaran
It will be no mean feat to reach a resolution of the fishing dispute in the waters between India and Lanka. First there is the wrangle between impoverished fishermen struggling to haul in a catch and provide an income for their families; second, fat-cat businessmen (mudalilis) on both sides own trawlers that roam the seas in search of return-on-investment. The depleted oceans can feign yield sufficient to satisfy the latter, though if it was a dispute between fishermen alone, resolution is reachable. As it stands the quarrel is set to drag on interminably. Much has been written in recent weeks so I will not to repeat well known facts.
The loss of life and the number of arrests and detentions is large and would have led to military clashes if confrontation on this scale had occurred between India and another neighbour – Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal or Burma. Indian National Fish-workers’ Forum President M. Illango claims that 800 fishermen have been killed, another 800 seriously injured, and hundreds of boats confiscated by the Lankan side in the last 30 years. These numbers are wildly exaggerated but even the lower estimate of 100 deaths made by Fisheries Management Resource Centre expert Vivikenandan (sic initials omitted by publisher) in Himal magazine is troubling; a potential flash point.
No one is quite sure how many Lankan fishermen have been arrested and detained by the Indian authorities but probably right now it is more than 200. From time to time the two governments arrange farcical prisoner exchanges; then tempers cool for a while. There was accelerated detention by both sides recently in honour of a bilateral meeting scheduled for Monday (20); both want as many tradable objects as possible to barter! I am not being facetious; many spokesmen say this. Those locked up in Lanka are almost exclusively Indian Tamils, but in India mostly Lankan Tamil, but a number of Sinhalese too are in detention. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha moved first last week and ordered release of 180 held in her state; Rajitha refused to take the gambit unless 50 held in other states are also freed.
An Indo-Lanka Joint Working Group, set up long ago as a consultative forum, is dysfunctional having never met (or hardly met) in the last eight years! Indian fishermen are threatening to boycott the Lok Sabaha elections due in May. Agitated Jayalalitha and firebrand Tamil nationalist Vaiko are kicking up a commotion with the Centre (Delhi) demanding the following: Read More
