SL NEEDS A MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIP WITH INDIA

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Your editorial under the caption ‘A bridge over the troubled Palk Strait” has provoked me to write this comment. It quite rightly refers to the most urgent issue that we are seized with today as the fisheries issue. Yes, this must indeed be resolved at the earliest but it appears to me that we MUST put this relationship which at times is being taken for granted by both sides, on an internationally-accepted level by entering into a treaty which covers all aspects of our relationship. I shall refer to it anon but meanwhile I wish to refer to the fisheries issue.

Our fishermen with their small boats are being denied their livelihoods; they are no match to the Indian fishermen with their deep sea trawlers. Jayalalithaa is indulging in cheap double talk in order to win votes at the forthcoming general elections by supporting the fishermen of Tamil Nadu and at the same time appearing as Champion of the Tamil people of our country; she is indeed a political fraud.
 The local newspapers have reported that the government has bought two warships from India – this must be a mistake, for why should we need warships - it may be coast guard vessels to prevent human smuggling and other forms of smuggling. We do need a strong Navy now that the land war is over, but let us purchase at least five fishing trawlers and set up five fish cooperatives with every fisherman buying shares (on long-term loans) with the Shipping corperation taking out 25% of the shares in every Cooperative. We have the huge Economic Zone in the Indian Ocean under the Law of the Sea which is being exploited by Indian and foreign fisher companies. This is just one way of empowering our fishermen to escape poverty which is their lot today because of Indian fishermen fishing in our waters.      

The relationship with India is vital for our well-being and most unfortunately our opening of the economy in 1978 and reaching out to the west to obtain FDI in particular, after years of socialist governments ending in a two per cent growth rate, was misread by India during the period of the Cold War. India, which had the closest of relations with our country and withdrew her claim to Katchchathivu and also agreed to take back over five hundred thousand persons of  Indian origin from our country, considered our reaching out to the West for our economic well-being during the Cold War as a threat to her security, and destabilised our country.

We are still suffering from the impact of that intervention and also because India continues to interfere in our internal affairs. India interferes in our domestic affairs not out of any love for our Tamil people but because of their own domestic political compulsions. Let us together secure this relationship and put it at a level which would respect our sovereignty and territorial integrity and also ensure India’s own security.

"India, which had the closest of relations with our
country and withdrew her claim to Katchchathivu and also agreed to take back over five hundred thousand
persons of  Indian origin from our country, considered our reaching out to the West for our economic well-being during the Cold War as a threat to her security and destabilised our country"

 Let us enter into a Treaty of Peace and Cooperation with India. With India we cannot have a treaty of ‘Friendship’ as we have a blood relationship with that country. India entered into a ‘Treaty of Peace Friendship and Cooperation’ with the Soviet Union in 1971 and that Treaty has stood the test of time. I do believe that we too should enter into such a Treaty with India and ensure that itinerant politicians are not able to interfere and spoil our relations. It could and should become a model relationship.

The Ministry of External Affairs today does have amongst its officers, professionals who have done post-graduate studies in International Relations and also possesse experience in the practice of Diplomacy. A team of them should be tasked with preparing a draft of a Treaty. They would no doubt study the background and the recent history of our relations and would perhaps with the assistance of persons of the calibre of Jayantha Dhanpala, Nihal Rodrigo,  Palihakkara and Rohan Perera, prepare a document which could be used for the purpose of entering into discussions with their Indian counterparts, for they are real professionals themselves. They would no doubt study the work done by the Observer Research Institute of Chennai, which studied the Fisheries issue.

In India it is the officials in the Prime Minister's Office, in the Ministry of External Relations and the National Security Advisor that formulate policy in India, even though in recent times we have noted politicians dictating policy and spoiling relations with neighbouring countries including our country. Such a Treaty could cover the whole gamut of our relations, which would include Political, Defence, including strategic issues of course, Economic, Joint Scientific and Agricultural Research, the Fisheries Issue, Human Resource Development and Cultural Relations, and ensure that there would be no ups and downs or fluctuations in the relationship and most important of all, ensure non-interference in the internal affairs of our two countries.

"India entered into a ‘Treaty of Peace Friendship and Cooperation’ with the Soviet Union in 1971 and that Treaty has stood the test of time. I do believe that we too should enter into such a Treaty with India and ensure that itinerant politicians are not able to interfere and spoil our relations"

 We should of course get our act together on the domestic front and ensure that our minorities, particularly our Tamil brethren, are politically empowered to live in dignity as equals and have a share in the governance of our country, which is as much theirs as it is ours. This would also help Delhi to get Tamil Nadu off its back.
 This would infuse confidence and ensure trust, which is vital for the development of the relationship, so important for both our countries. Let us therefore have a ‘Treaty of Peace and Cooperation’ and consign all previous so-called ‘Agreements’ to history.