Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara.

Dear all Patriots,

I invite your immediate and very serious attention to the following news item with the view to stop this right royal betrayal. There is no use in closing the gate after the horse is gone

Indian fishermen to be licensed to fish in Lankan waters

March 29, 2021 by Pamodi Waravita

Proposed as solution to illegal poaching

Local Fisheries Association threatens union action

     The Ministry of Fisheries is currently in discussions with the Government of India for the implementation of a programme that would permit Indian fishermen to fish in Sri Lankan waters, The Morning learnt.  There are two main problems we face in our waters. Indian fishermen illegally crossing the border, and engaging in bottom trawling. To settle these problems we have proposed that a limited number of Indian boats be given licenses to fish here per week,” Minister of Fisheries Douglas Devananda told The Morning yesterday (28).  Devananda further said that this plan is currently being discussed with the Indian government and would likely be implemented within a few months.  However, he insisted that bottom trawlers would not be allowed to venture into Sri Lankan waters since they ruin the wealth of the country’s fisheries resources.  In 2014, the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act was amended to make bottom trawling an offence with a maximum prison term of two years and a maximum fine of Rs. 50,000. Bottom trawling is widely regarded as ecologically destructive since trawlers drag heavy nets along the ocean floor, thus depleting aquatic resources.  Speaking to The Morning, All Island Fisheries Association Convenor Rathna Gamage claimed that issuing licenses to Indian fishermen to fish in Sri Lankan waters is akin to handing over the country to India.  We would be engaging in strict union action if this plan goes ahead as it would negatively affect our sovereignty, our resources, and our marine environment, including the ocean bed,” said Gamage.  Gamage also alleged that approximately 30,000 boats cross illegally into Sri Lankan waters per month.  Our leaders have no backbone. Instead of protesting and stopping their illegal activities, they have decided to assist them,” added Gamage.  Last Thursday, the day after the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted on a resolution on Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Navy arrested 54 Indian fishermen, the largest at a given time since June 2014. It was reported that many in diplomatic circles considered the arrests retaliation, following India’s abstention from the vote.  It was also reported that 40 of the 54 fishermen were initially released due to interventions by the Ministry of Fisheries. The following day, the Ministry intervened to have the remaining 15 fishermen also released.  Indian fishermen have allegedly been fishing illegally in Sri Lankan waters for decades, especially during the height of the war between the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), reportedly with the blessings of the LTTE. However, the end of the civil war in 2009 made the north eastern waters accessible to Sri Lankan fishermen and set the fishermen of the two countries on a collision course. Over a decade later, the issue is yet to be resolved.

March 29, 2021 by Pamodi Waravita 0 Comments”

My response to this news

The first step in this process of national betrayals to India by our post-1948 politicians was of cause taken by JR Jayawarhana on 29^th July 1987 for fear of his life. Thereby JR has gone down in history as the first politician who started this historic crime. As for him this is no wonder as he was the first Sri Lankan politician who once proposed that this country should be a part of India if we are going to develop as the days of Dutugemunu and Parakaramabahu are gone and they are only dreams

JR ceded this land that had been the traditional historic Motherland of the Sinhala Nation, at least, for the past 2500 years, to India by his historic betrayal of 29th July 1987 Rajiv/JR Accord as follows.

1 By accepting the Northern and the Eastern Provinces, that is 1/3 of the Land area of the country and 2/3 of our marine territory.as Traditional Homeland for Tamils domicile here for them to form their dream EELAM, which Wardharja Perumal declared unilaterally in 1990.

2 Gave Citizenship on a letter signed by a JP to all Indians (contrary to all accepted International covenants on awarding citizenship) who had  been brought by the British to work on their plantation estates and left behind as British citizens and all those Tamils who had  entered illegally and remained here as illegal immigrants

3 He also made Tamil an Official Language by abrogating Sec 18 of the Constitution that had declared Sinhala the Official Language of the country

4 He also agreed to merged the North and the East as one Province and laid the foundation for the permanent division of the country in to two States a) A mono Tamil State in the North and East with future provision to merge it with the central part of the country (by including provision for the merger of more than two Provinces with the covert strategy of annexing the Central, Sabaragamuwa and the Uva Provinces where there is a large Tamil population

Is this going to be the grand finale of that process of betrayal

Is this going to be the grand finale of that process of betrayal that is going to be taken by this Government by allowing legal rights, agreed upon bilaterally to ceding the right for fishing in our waters for Indian Fishermen who were illegally poaching in marine territory and robbing our national fish resources right throughout history?

Isn’t it like the owner of the house helping the burglars to carry the stuff robbed form his house and giving them  consent in writing to loot his house as they like as and when they want.

 I now pause the question, was it for this type of governance that the 7 million Sinhala people the Bhoomiputras  of this Island elected this President, the Prime Minister and their followers and the government in to power in 2019 and 2020 respectively? Does the Government honestly think it is for this type of Governance that nakedly betrays the  Sinhala Buddhist nation the 7 million people have elected them by defeating the rogue Yahapalanaya anarchic Government? After all why should we have a government at all if this is the way how they govern?

 As I understand it, I don’t think anyone who voted this regime in to power will ever and never approve this kind of disastrous agreement with any country that concede to giving in to this kind of foreign aggression. Even in 1987 India did this. First by invading our air space with supersonic jets and dropping parippu” as they say it and thereafter threatening old JR of the consequences and the price he has to pay if he says no and got him to sign the Accord which even JR”s Minister of Defense Lalith Atulathmudali boycotted in  protest.

Are we going to repeat the same folly again by signing another agreement this time to sell our national resources to India by another Government that has got elected for five years only?

As protecting the country from foreign invasion, being one of the cardinal functions of any Government, I sincerely and fervently hope and wish neither the President  nor the Prime minister or any other man or woman in the Parliament led by people like Sarath Weerasekara, Dinesh Gunawardhana, Vidura Wikramanaayaka, Gammanpila and Wimal Weerawansaeve will allow this tragic disaster to  be inked.

 One more final query before I wind up

Who is the two footed donkey adviser that made this proposition to the Government? Doesn’t that open gates?

Firstly, to fish in all our waters right round the Island using it as Indian version of legitimacy and

Secondly, to claim the right for sharing all our resources even on the land as Kautilyan Indian bureaucrats and Taminadu politicians would definitely argue based on the logic behind Rajiv/JR Accord  of 1987 and historian turned legal eagle politicians with their Sivalinga theory would cry.

Why can’t the Government of Sri Lanka go by the International boundary between the two countries instead and confine fishing strictly to one’s own waters accordingly an dapply the law ? On the other hand if the GOSL agrees to give that right to Indian Fishermen then the same right should be demanded for the Sri Lankan fishermen to fishing in Indian waters as well by the same agreement ensuring that neither the Indian Government nor the Tamilnadu Government or Tamilnadu fishermen will directly or indirectly obstruct Sri Lankan fishermen