Tamils lost access to Kachativu only in 1976 and not in 1974!
Seditious officials of the MEA ceded Kachativu, totally, on 23.03.1976 !!
The yearnings of 1800s for the return of the Peshwa regime!
The continuity of Peshwa regime wherever possible in the 1900s
Peshwa regime re-established in the traditional way post-1947
Kachativu 1973
In the year 1973. External Affairs Minister Shri. Surendra Pal Singh had said in the Parliament that this uninhabited barren island belongs to India. Adequate records are available to establish the legal rights of India over this island, he added. This fact had been published in the Indian Express on 29.04.1973. This was a solemn declaration before the sovereign Parliament of India.
Kachativu 1974
In spite of such a documentary evidence being available with India to establish the rights of India over the Kachativu island, an agreement had been signed by Mrs. Indira Gandhi on 26.06.1974 ceding the rights over the island to Sri Lanka, without explaining the contradictions between the statements of the Government in the Parliament on 29.04.1973 and the contents of the agreement dated 26.09.1974.
Tin Bigha of West Bengal Vs. Kachativu of Tamil Nadu
The cruelty in the approach of the MEA officials towards Tamils becomes manifold when we see that the issue of Tin Bigha had been examined during the same period and executed on 16.05.1974, just forty days before the execution of the Kachativu agreement on 26.06.1974 contained totally different terms and had duly taken into account the interests of the Bengali people.
As India was not a monarchy in 1974 and the politicians in power had no right to hand over the Indian territory to a foreign country, the citizens of India do have an inalienable right, at least, to know the real reason for such an action by the Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi in 1974. But the ‘Peshwas’ in the MEA do not give any information, as their seditious activities would come to public notice.
Art. 5 of the 1974 agreement said that the
“Subject to the foregoing, Indian fishermen and pilgrims will enjoy access to visit Kacha Theevu as hitherto and will not be required to obtain travel documents”.
It also said that the
“…Vessels of India and Sri Lanka will enjoy in each other’s waters such rights as they have traditionally enjoyed therein…”.
Referring to these paragraphs, the then External Affairs Minister had said in the Parliament on 23.7.1974 (after the 1974 agreement had been signed on 26.06.1974),
“At the same time, I wish to remind the Honourable Members that in concluding this agreement, the rights of fishing, pilgrimage and navigation, which both sides have enjoyed in the past, have been fully safeguarded for the future.”
Kachativu 1975
But, in spite of it, the Sri Lankan Navy in clear violation of this agreement, attacked the 38 fishermen of Rameswaram who were fishing near Kachativu on 31.12.1975 (During the period of emergency) and arrested them stating that they were fishing in Sri Lankan waters.
“The Sri Lankan government, on Friday, ordered the release of 38 fishermen who were arrested on Thursday for allegedly fishing in five trawlers in Sri Lanka’s territorial waters near Kachativu. A spokesman of the Lanka Defence and Central Affairs Ministry told PTI that negotiations are in progress between Sri Lankan and Indian Governments on settling fishing right of both, in narrow stretches of sea waters which separate the two countries” (Indian Express – 05.01.1976).
It was really puzzling how such attack, arrest and release could happen and further negotiations take place when the agreement dated 28.06.1974 gave no scope for re-opening and when there was no need for re-opening. It is obvious that the officials of the MEA chose to work against our own national interest and conspire with the Sri Lankans to favour them utilising the cover of emergency which denied the people information as well as the right of discussion about the activities of the government.
Kachativu 1976
But it happened as suspected. Another agreement was signed on 23.03.1976 ceding all rights over Kachativu to Sri Lanka. Mr. Y.B. Chavan said in the Parliament on 25.03.1976 that
“with the signing of the present agreement the maritime boundary between Sri Lanka and India stands settled along its entire length, and the two countries shall exercise full sovereignty and absolute jurisdiction on their side of the maritime boundary”. Part 5 of the 1976 agreement said, “…Each party shall have exclusive sovereign rights and exclusive jurisdiction over the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone as well as over their resources, whether living or non-living falling on its side of the aforesaid boundary”
The questions which the Peshwas in the South Block consistently refuse to answer
1. What happened to the millennia-old ‘traditional’ rights enjoyed by the fishermen of Tamil Nadu to fish in the waters near Kachativu, from the days of yore when man learnt to row catamarans?
2. How can this ‘traditional’ right be snatched away from the Tamil Nadu fishermen in 1976, because of the irresponsible action of the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs, when the Sri Lankan Government itself had accepted, in writing, the existence of those ‘traditional’ rights, when it signed the earlier agreement on 26.06.1974?
3. What happened to the solemn assurance for the safeguard of Tamil fishermen, as given by Shri. Swaran Singh in Parliament on 23.7.1974 that “the rights of fishing, pilgrimage and navigation, which both sides have enjoyed in the past, have been fully safeguarded for the future”?
4. What was the motive (if it was not the apparent ulterior motive) to, first of all re-open the 1974 agreement and enter into another agreement in 1976, when the 1974 agreement consciously signed by Sri Lanka too, did not provide any scope for reviewing it?
5. How was the 1974 agreement overturned so radically? Who was, precisely, responsible for such misconduct and crime? What are the reasons recorded in the file to justify such an agreement in 1976, the terms of which are totally contrary to the earlier one?
6. Did the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs record all the relevant facts when they submitted the files to the Cabinet Secretary, the Minister and the Prime Minister?
7. What had actually transpired between the officials of the Sri Lankan High Commission and the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs during the period between 26.06.1974 and 23.03.1976, i.e., during the period between the two agreements? What was the correspondence between the two governments over the property rights, during this intervening period?
8. Was any fact relevant to the issue suppressed in the filenotings submitted by the MEA officials? And, if so, what was the motive behind such suppression and manipulation?
9. “The Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and Other Maritime Zones Act, 1976” (Maritime Zones Act, in short) had been notified on 25. 08. 1976. The contents of that Act and the analysis of the facts available in public domain as narrated hitherto gives the bona fide impression that the Ministry of External Affairs had rushed through the second agreement dated 23.03.1976 with Sri Lanka on the issue of Kachativu in a hurry, as the abovementioned Maritime Zones Act, 1976 was in the offing and the agreement of this kind (as finalized on 23.03.1976) would not be possible after the promulgation of the aforesaid Maritime Zones Act. Why did the MEA officials process the papers, the Kachativu papers in a deliberate hurry, to sign the subsequent agreement dated 23.03.1976 when they had inside information about the direction and progress of the work pertaining to the aforesaid Maritime Zones Act, 1976?
10. In other words, the fact can only be that the bureaucrats of the MEA had been preparing the papers on the total surrender of Kachativu and the Bill for the above said Maritime Zones Act, 1976 at least for about a year. The later was a very good enactment prepared by competent persons giving primacy to the national interest duly keeping in view the provisions of international law on the subject. But, at the same time, the officials of the same MEA had been preparing consciously the second agreement with Sri Lanka with totally contradictory provisions in contravention of the provisions of International Law. Does it not become crystal clear, form the foregoing, that it was, only in order to favour the Sri Lankan politicians, the officials of the MEA had colluded with the foreigners and manipulated the political leaders in power in 1976, to sacrifice the Indian interests in Kachativu?
Conclusion:
The seditious officials of the MEA had, with ulterior motive, used the situation prevailing during the emergency, when there was press censorship with no freedom of expression, helped Sri Lanka by rushing through the second agreement that was signed on 23.03.1976.
Kachativu matter does not have any connection with State Secret, as the 1974 and 1976 agreements dealt only with the property rights. Yet, the Peshwas of the South Block run the MEA, as they were under the Peshwa rule. They consistently and deliberately refuse to answer questions. Their statements that the matter pertains to State Secret is false. They want to cover up their seditious crime committed by them on 23.03.1976 (after the DMK Ministry was dismissed in January 1976) by using the fine phrases like national security. It was because of the crime committed by these officials in an irresponsible and unpatriotic manner, hundreds of Tamils have lost their lives to Sinhalese bullets.