It has been hard not to feel sorry for Indian Prime Ministers and Sri Lankan Presidents ahead of bilateral meetings over the past 10 years or so. The last item on every agenda has almost certainly been ‘the fisheries issue and how to solve it?’
Illegal fishing by Tamil Nadu trawlers in Sri Lankan waters remains the only issue between the two states that stubbornly refuses to go away. The central reason this fisheries issue persists is that a direct solution to the problem lies outside the purview of Indian Prime Ministers or Sri Lankan Presidents to resolve.
Step forward Chief Ministers and the State Government of Tamil Nadu. Fisheries is a devolved subject under the Constitution of India (Item 21). The state legislature has exclusive power to make and enforce laws on fisheries in Tamil Nadu. Indian Prime Ministers can make laws on state fisheries through the Lok Sabha. To do so, the central government requires a two-thirds majority in the Rajya Sabha, on the basis that overriding the state legislature is in the national interest.
The problem of illegal fishing by Tamil Nadu trawlers in Sri Lankan waters is clearly not a national issue. It is highly localised, limited to the narrow strip of water that separates India from Sri Lanka in the Palk Strait and Palk Bay. This local fisheries issue becomes a national and thereafter a bilateral issue when arrested Tamil Nadu fishermen become Indian fishermen imprisoned in Sri Lankan jails.
The impasse on this issue is complicated further because diplomatic protocols preclude Sri Lankan Presidents from engaging directly with Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers; hence the fisheries issue persists from one bilateral meeting to the next, ad nauseam.
Last week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe in New Delhi for another round of bilateral talks. The talks focused on enhancing connectivity, people-to-people ties and more integrated economic cooperation between the two nations with regard to tourism, energy, trade, education, fintech and skill development. The last item on the agenda was mostly likely the fisheries issue and how to solve it. The latest solution proposed by the two leaders involves adopting a humane approach and by demonstrating compassion.
Karunawa and anukampawa (kindness and compassion) are not terms typically associated with international efforts to address illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, but then this is not a typical IUU fishing issue. The principal protagonist—currently Chief Minister M. K. Stalin—operates outside the influence of those who oppose IUU fishing, including his own Prime Minister, the President of Sri Lanka and about 20,000 Tamil fishermen in northern Sri Lanka.
Unusual circumstances call for unorthodox actions, so what would a humane approach delivered with compassion look like in the context of the fisheries issue?
The Sri Lanka Navy has made impressive strides towards apprehending Tamil Nadu trawlers and detaining fishermen humanely over the past 25 years. Incidents of injury and loss of life that occurred during the civil conflict reduced significantly after 2009. Barring one unfortunate incident in 2021 when a fisherman from Kottaipattinam in Pudukottai District drowned after a collision between a trawler and a Sri Lanka Navy patrol vessel, the navy’s current operating procedure minimises the risk of injury or death and maintains the dignity of arrested Tamil Nadu fishermen; fundamental elements of a humane approach.
Magistrates in Kayts, Point Pedro, Kilinochchi, and Mannar have been demonstrating compassion towards arrested Tamil Nadu fishermen since 2019. A legal precedent is now well established under the Fisheries (Regulation of Foreign Fishing Boats) Act to the effect that if an arrested fisherman pleads guilty, he will be convicted. A three-year jail sentence suspended for five years is handed down. The convicted fisherman is immediately discharged by the court and handed over to the Indian High Commission for repatriation. The vessel is forfeited.
However, if the fisherman pleads not guilty, but is found guilty he will be imprisoned for three years. The vessel will be forfeited. About 780 Tamil Nadu fishermen have pleaded guilty since 2019 and 137 Tamil Nadu trawlers have been forfeited. The magistrates’ thoughtful application of the law ensures that Tamil Nadu fishermen seldom spend more than two weeks in Sri Lankan custody. A decade ago it was not uncommon to find hundreds of Indian fishermen incarcerated in Sri Lankan jails, often for months.
As long as the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister remains peripheral to discussions, a direct solution to the fisheries issue will continue to elude the two countries. Last Tuesday the navy humanely arrested nine Tamil Nadu fishermen. If continuing matters are dealt with compassion, nine Indian fishermen will be repatriated next week. Tamil Nadu’s trawler of trawlers will be reduced by two.
Approaching the fisheries issue through Karunawa and Anukampawa leaves the onus on Sri Lanka to be proactive and persistent, but if half a dozen Tamil Nadu trawlers are arrested every month from now on, the mandarins in New Delhi and Colombo may finally be able to delete the fisheries issue from the next bilateral agenda.