Don’t over-do India-Sri lanka fishermen issue
Sri lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe’s remarks last week about shooting Indian fishermen who strayed into lankan waters were unfortunate and ill-timed. The comments, made during a television interview to a Chennai-based Tamil news channel, came at a time when the India-Sri lanka relationship is on the uptick and amidst a flurry of high-level visits. The interview was telecast on the eve of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's trip to the island nation; only a fortnight before that, Sri lankan President Maithripala Sirisena had visited India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Sri lanka tour is scheduled for later this week.
An intemperate remark such as this could have dampened the positive momentum generated in recent months, especially after the election of President Sirisena who is seen as more pro-India than his predecessor. Against this backdrop, the Government of India has done well to convey its reservations on the issue to Colombo and, as Ms Swaraj pointed out in Parliament this week, one may assume that, since the Sri lankans did not put out a counter-response, both parties are now on the same page. But while a mini diplomatic crisis may have been averted for now, the fishermen issue is not going away anytime soon.
It is a complex and emotive issue that involves the lives and livelihoods of the hundreds of civilians on both sides of the Palk Strait. Surely, the best way to resolve this is not through harsh language but reasoned dialogue. Had this been a case that involved hard security concerns for Sri lanka — as it possibly was during the war against the liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam, when fishermen were used to move weapons, cash and drugs — or was even a malicious breach of territorial sovereignty from the Indian side, then the Sri lankan Prime Minister's offensive would have been understandable. But, as Ms Swaraj has explained to the Prime Minister, this is a humanitarian issue and there can be no justification for shooting at unarmed fishermen who have mistakenly strayed outside their territorial limits.
Moreover, the fact that the Modi Government is looking into deep sea fishing possibilities for Indian fishermen shows that it is serious about resolving the issue for the long term. But surely even the Sri lankans understand that a resolution won’t happen overnight. Deep sea fishing, for instance, is a contentious issue here with small Indian fishermen worrying if they will lose out to large fishing corporates. Similarly, the Sri lankans have almost written off the proposal of allowing both Sri lankan and Indian fishermen to fish in each other's waters because they say that there is little fish left on the Indian side.
Ultimately, a middle path will have to found. In the meantime, unnecessary diplomatic grandstanding is best avoided. It is possible that Mr Wickramasinghe went overboard with his statements to appease his votebank in the run-up to the parliamentary election. Scheduled for April, this election is expected to be a tough fight for the ruling coalition. But Mr Wickramasinghe shouldn't ignore how unfavourably his statements reverberate in certain parts of this country, and, in the process, cast a long shadow on the India-Sri lanka bilateral.