2000yr old Thirukural

Showing posts with label Tamil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tamil. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Deeper Analysis of Vishwaroopam -review








Deeper Analysis of "Vishwaroopam" : 

These are just spoilers,if you haven’t watched vishwaroopam yet,Don't go further.Let me get to core of the movie.Right from first scene,Kamal uses pigeon to paddle the boat ;Pigeon signifies peace,and so it does in the film too, it signifies peace loving 'Muslims',or "ISLAM THE RELIGION OF PEACE".Many believe "People gotta have some global knowledge to understand Kamal's film".

I'd to like make some changes on the words,"People don't have to have global knowledge to understand the story/film of Kamal sir's,but they gotta have global knowledge to understand the buried messages/information in kamal sir's film"

When I saw the first time I never realized,but after i had come to home i realized,film does not start with the Nirupamma's narration ,rather the story starts right immediately after the title.

While title credit goes on at the back ground,one can notice pigeons in their own cages until a man/terrorist walks in, feeds (thoughts of Jihad) those pigeons. He chooses a white pigeon and sends it,and it ain't white anymore,it has some black spots on it; It symbolizes Muslims are brainwashed to Jihads; the black spotted pigeon flies across Wall street,and lands at charging bull; Charging bull implies aggressive financial optimism and prosperity of the American economy at Wall Street,i guess; Kamal sir tries to explain how terrorists had brought American economy down by bombarding Twin tower,and post military,and army expenses which brought down America's economy.

Coming to the main plot,film was banned at many places during the initial release,because Muslims thought the film had had scenes which were offensive to their religious practices,and their religion,but the film proves jihads have got wrong perception over Koran,and they follow Islam in a wrong way.

1) The scene where boys dance wearing female attire to entertain the public,Omar and his men destroy the dance and give punishments to all those boys as it’s a sin but the same Omar allows his son to wear burka to demolish few of the American's tanks.This shows Omar and his men do not follow or do not know what the true meaning of Islam is. They ain't Islams; they just use Islamism as a Blanket/coverlet to justify their opinions.

2) After the damage done by the US army,Severely wounderd Omar asks Wisam(Kamal) why is "OUR RELIGION" treated this way? Why Muslims are being tortured so much in this world?Why should we shed tears? Wisam replies "WE ARE JIHADS" (replacing "religion" to "jihads" from Omar's question) we are not meant to shed tears,but to shed blood. "You have answered your question in your question itself, if there were a fight there, would be some death too" .Omar,the jihad does not know the difference between Islam and the Jihad,But Wisam explains it clearly.Muslims shed tears,jihads shed blood.Muslims take not violence as their weapon at any cost.

3) It's unfortunate that terrorist are Muslims ,and they strongly believe in God.They believe,they kill people for the betterment of Islam.Omar and his men pray before any killings or bombings.In the end, Abassi,the Nigerian prays to god before the sets the bomb,Omar and Salim pray before the detonation too.So does Wisam; when a FBI officer (Israeli) asks Tom,what is Wisam doing? he says "he is praying for you".Israeli asks "God Vadim"? Tom replies "Exactly, except it is in Arabic version" So Wisam, the Muslim prays for that Israeli too.These three guys pray to the same god,but their prayers differ.Director portrays the difference between the real Muslim and a terrorists who use Islamism as a blanket.Also one can connect Israeli and Palestinian wars when Tom answers Israeli's question.

4) I believe there's a scene in this film where a Muslims shaves all his hair from the body.I happened to notice,many didn't understand,why does he shave all over his body.It's an Islamic tradition to cut nails,remove all pubic hairs from the corpse.According to the Islams one's gotta be clean before he enters heaven.He knows he's gonna die,when he detonate the bomb; he does not have any one to do the spiritual activities,so he removes all his pubic hair by himself.Jihads believe,if they kill Tom,dick,and Harry,they shall go to heaven.So they're prepared for all the things.Even Wiz (kamal) shaves his pubic hair (After the interval scene),because he knows he may die saving the New York people.So in order to go to heaven,he shaves his pubic hair.Both the Abassi and Wiz do shave their hairs,but for the different reason.One of the greatest directorial touches.

5) In the public hanging scene, which according to jihads is justice done to a sinner. Almost everyone wears a white Taqiyya (worldly called as Muslim caps) or imama in Arabic. except for Wisam,who wears Black taqiyya; Black signifies sadness,but however it signifies evil,according to Koran and Bible. One can relate what director is trying prove by wearing the black cap at the so called justice done to the sinner.They don't give justice to sinner,instead they're doing the sin (Evil activities) in the name of justice.

6) The little boy is ambitious about becoming a doctor,but Omar restricts him to be a Jihad as his brother Mammu; Wisam (Kamal) swings the little boy on the swing board,but the boy says “I am not a child" and walks away from the swing,but his elder brother asks Wisam to push the swing,and he enjoys the swing by closing his eyes against light,though the light falls on him,he ignores to accept it by closing his eyes. Proving the difference between a matured little boy,and immature grown up brother.Reason is obvious...

7) Pigeons roam beside the mosque or tomb in the film.When Omar walks beside the mosque he walks against those pigeon, symbolizing that Jihads hate peace,and hence they kick pigeons with their foot.Since,pigeon is a metonymy for peace.

8) During the Public Hanging scene,there are lots of people observing the death of Nasir.During the hanging,Omar eats something and feeds a Pigeon (It symbolizes Omar's feeding his thoughts to good Muslims).Omar sits beside 2 pigeons on his right side with a Gun,and on left side Nasir's mom cries out of depression and curses Omar and his men,Omar had the option to choose between Peace (Pigeons) and War (Gun),but still he chose to pick up the gun..

9) The scene where sheik is introduced to wisam,one could notice the red roses behind them,and when a jihads car come near by the roses seem to be very red,but when the cars passed the rose,it became dark since there ain't any light to see the light up the red color of the roses,logically and scientifically the scene is justified,but what the director has tried to portray his,anything may turn dark when a jihad passes by.Good Muslims may turn dark/evil when they come across a jihad.

10) When Deepak questions Wisam about his religious faith, his wife says "Avar ADHU dhan" it’s quite obvious that she ain't comfortable with the name of the religion and hence addresses as ADHU rather dhan Islam. She had hated Vishwa,even before she didn't know he is a Muslim,but she starts to love him when she knew he is a Muslim.The scene when Kamal walks down the stairs with black leather jacket, Nirupama admires him,and so the pleasant BGM goes instead of Thunderous mass BGM which most of us would have expected when Kamal walks down. She hated him when he was a Brahmin and now he is a Muslim and she loves him.I guess director Kamal tries to prove Love > Religion

11) When the director introduces the detective Peter, Peter leans on an advertisement hoarding that says "Americas Most Favorite", explaining CIA and detective agencies of US which is being US’s most favorite from Director’s point of view.

12) In the news Obama says that Laden is killed praising America while below the news is "Petroleum hike by 3%" and on the right side "WORLD ALERT". Self-explainable. LOL

13) Some scenes show 2 sided statue is shown in the movie. One side being a man and another a woman. While the first song the statue is placed against a mirror, the camera shows the mirror and the statue. One can see both the faces of status in the same frame,
and again in the end once Kamal's boss says that he is the only live agent,and the status is shown both the sides. 2 sides of one statue and 2 sides of Wisam. Represents the role of Wisam in the movie as double agent.

14) At the last minute of the movie, director shows how Wisam enters the territory of Al Queada by landing/dropping from a helicopter. According to Islam half-moon ain't really related to the Koran,however some Muslims started using it as symbol of Islam.In fact Islam is against using such symbols;The crescent is mentioned in the Koran as the non-Muslims. Haj-Koran 2:189.However,some Muslims believe, crescent moon is coming of second son,and also representation of new day, as according to Islam and Jewish a new day does not start by sunrise,but at sunset. A crescent comes after sunset,while Kamal Hassan falls from the sky entering Al Queda territory a crescent moon is seen, so you can connect to the previous 2 sentences :) Symbolizing start of new day or start of new Muslim era in this Muslim hated world. As Wisam is an Indian Muslim Raw agent,and saves 1000's of lives in the movie,proving worth of Muslims to this world. If I were a Muslim,I would thank Kamal Hassan,and would not protest.

Finally film ain't an Anti-Muslim, its Pro Muslim :) This movie has been taken to prove ,good Muslims are overshadowed by many things,and most of the times are swept away with odd things around this world. I would say this movie as a tribute to Muslims.So has he proved through this movie? Well audience gotta understand the movie to answer this question.

According to me Viswaroopam's one of the greatest cinematic achievements,not only in the Indian cinema,but also in the world cinema.

While many films portray Muslims as a Somalian terrorists/Afghan terrorists etc.

This film has clearly explained the differences between a jihad and a Muslim.

The best Muslim friendly film ever made.

We're able to trace out only these much interesting things from the film,but think How much things Kamal sir would have buried in this film.

We gotta dig deeper,or in other words We gotta watch it for N number of times,to get all the details/things from the film.

Overall it's a tribute to peace loving Muslims


Viswaroopam - A celluloid poem !

Monday, November 26, 2012

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Paradesi 2012 Movie Info: Movie: Paradesi 2012 
Director: Bala 
Producer: Bala 
Written by: Nanjilnadan 
Based on: Eriyum Thanal 
Starring: Adharvaa, Dhansika, Vedhika, Uma Riyaz Khan 
Music by: G. V. Prakash Kumar 
Studio: b STUdIOS 
Release Date: November 24, 2012 
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Monday, September 3, 2012

Neethane En Ponvasantham movie mp3 download

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Cast: Jeeva, Samantha
Music: Ilayaraja
Director: Gowtham Vasudev Menon

 
Track List Of  Neethane En Ponvasantham (2012) Tamil Mp3 Songs 
1. Kaatrai Konjam
Artists :- Karthik
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Artists :- Suraj Jagan, Karthik 
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Artists :- Yuvanshankar Raja, Ramya NSK
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Artists :- Ilaiyaraaja, Bela Shende
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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

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Movie Name : Rajapattai
Cast : Vikram, Deeksha Seth, Shriya Saran, Reemma Sen, K Vishwanath, Pradeep Rawat, Avinash, Thambi Ramaiah, Mayilsamy, Aruldass, Saloni Aswani
Music Director : Yuvan Shankar Raja
Director : Suseenthiran
Lyrics : Yugabharathi
Year : 2011

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Podi Paiyyan Polave - Haricharan
Villathi Villan - Mano, Malathi
Paniye Panipoove - Javed Ali, Renuka
Laddu Laddu Rendu Laddu - Vikram, Priyadarshini, Suchitra
Podi Paiyyan Polave - Haricharan


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Movie Name : Vettai
Cast : Madhavan, Arya, Sameera Reddy, Amala Paul, Thambi Ramaiah, Ashutosh Rana, Rajeev Ravindranathan
Music Director : Yuvan Shankar Raja
Director : N Linguswamy
Screenplay : N Linguswamy
Story : N Linguswamy
Written : Brinda Sarathy (dialogues)
Cinematography : Nirav Shah
Editing : Anthony Gonsalves
Lyrics : Na Muthukumar
Year : 2011



Pappappa Pappa - Yuvan Shankar Raja, Renu

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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Sasikumar's Porali Full mp3 Download

Banner: Company Production
Artists: S.Sasikumar
Direction: P.Samuthirakani
Music: Sundar C Babu
Lyrics: Yugabharathi, Na.Muthkumar, Kabilan
Language: Tamil

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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

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Movie Name : Thambi Vettothi Sundaram
Year : 2011
Cast : Karan, Anjali, Saravanan…
Music Director : Vidyasagar
Banner : JS24 Frames, J Senthilkumar Presents
Producer : R Jaya Mudhaliyar, S Sumithra Senthilkumar
Director : VC Vadivudayan
Lyrics : Vairamuthu
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Movie Name : Rowthiram
Year : 2011
Cast : Jeeva, Shriya Saran, Prakash Raj, Chaitanya Krishna, Jayaprakash…
Music Director : Prakash Nikki
Producer : RB Choudry
Director : Gokul
Banner : Super Good Films
Lyrics : Thamarai (1), Gokul (2), Lalithanand (3,4), Mahakavi Bharathiyar (5)

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Movie Name : Vandhaan Vendraan
Year : 2011
Cast : Jeeva, Nandha, Taapsee Pannu, Santhanam…
Music Director : Thaman S
Director : R Kannan
Producer : KS Sreenivasan
Banner : Vasans Visual Ventures Pvt Ltd
Lyrics : Yugabharathi (1), Thamarai (2), Kaarky (3,4,6), Na Muthukumar (5)
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Saturday, July 2, 2011

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Movie Name : Yuvan Yuvathi
Year : 2011
Cast : Bharath, Rima Kallingal, Santhanam...
Music Director : Vijay Antony
Banner : Ram Pic
Director : GNR Kumaravelan
Producer : Baija
Lyrics : Annamalai (1,3,4,6,7), Kalai Kumar (2), Priyan (5)

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Banner: Sun Pictures
Cast: Danush, Tammannah
Direction: Hari
Production: Kalanithi Maran
Music: Devi Sri Prasad

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Friday, March 11, 2011

2G scam CBI on Kanimozhi dayalu_ammal








The sleuths reached the DMK headoffice and immediately started questioning the two.
The CBI sources said Kanimozhi would be questioned on the flow of over Rs.200 crore from Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa's DB Realty firm to Kalaignar TV, a regional Tamil channel in which Karunanidhi's family members allegedly have a majority stake. Kanimozhi alone is said to have 20 percent stake in the TV channel.
Balwa is one of the accused in the scam and his Swan Telecom was allegedly favoured by former communications minister and DMK MP A. Raja in the allocation of second generation (2G) spectrum licences.
CBI is probing if there was any quid pro quo under which Balwa transferred funds to the TV channel and in return got 2G spectrum licences at throwaway prices. Balwa is already in jail along with Raja.

Balwa is one of the accused in the scam and his Swan Telecom was allegedly favoured by former communications minister and DMK MP Andimuthu Raja in the allocation of second generation (2G) spectrum licences.
CBI is probing if there was any quid pro quo under which Balwa transferred funds to the TV channel and in return got 2G spectrum licences at throwaway prices, sources said.
Balwa and Raja are amongst the four people in jail in connection with the corruption scandal that is said to have cost the exchequer massive losses.
Source: IANS, msn

Friday, March 4, 2011

Sri Lankan Navy killed Tamil_fishermen






The bold men and the sea
Seventy-two Tamil Nadu fishermen have been shot by the Sri Lankan Navy in the past six months. Yet they keep going back to the same strip of sea. ROHINI MOHANtracks the reasons why
PHOTOS: MS GOPAL
ON A cold January night, an hour before midnight, Jayakumar kissed his sleeping three-yearold daughter Bhumika’s cheek and walked out of the house, closing the door softly. On the dark beach about 100 metres away, his brother Senthil and uncle were already dragging their bright green fibreglass boat into the crashing waves. For four hours, they sailed quietly, their faces barely visible to each other in the moonlight. When the shoreline was out of sight, they cast their net. Just as they were pulling up their net heavy with fish and prawns, a blinding beacon flooded their boat. The Sri Lankan Navy was speeding towards them, filled with 10 men, machine guns in hand.
As soon as the speedboat caught up, a navyman hopped on board. In broken Tamil, he screamed at Jayakumar to rip the fishing net, but the latter hesitated — the net was full of catch. Enraged, the navyman ordered everyone to strip. As they did, shivering in the cold night, he laughed. “Now jump in the water!” he said.
The three men were to swim in the icy sea till they were ordered to stop. Senthil and his uncle jumped. Jayakumar cried, saying he couldn’t swim. He had lost his fore and middle fingers in the 2004 tsunami, and could not raise his right arm above his chest. In a few seconds, freezing in the sea, Senthil saw his brother being hurled into the water with a noose around his neck. The navyman steered the boat in a circular orbit, dragging a drowning Jayakumar by his neck in the water.
A helpless Senthil saw his brother gasping in the sea, wrenched round and round, unable to breathe, to swim, or scream for help. “It seemed to go on and on,” recalls Senthil. “I can’t believe that it lasted for just 10 minutes.”
Suddenly, everything stopped. The boat zoomed off. “I swam up to anna (brother), bobbing in the sea,” says Senthil. “I don’t know why I expected him to be alive.” He pulled his brother’s body up and went back home. “It was only when I came ashore that I burst into tears,” he says. It was the moment he lost his stomach for the sea.
A month later, holding Jayakumar’s daughter on the same beach, 25-year-old Senthil says he is just not able to shake off a sick fear of the sea. “That image, anna being killed slowly... it haunts my dreams,” shudders Senthil.
Almost every fortnight last year, a fisherman from Tamil Nadu was killed at sea. Shot randomly by the Sri Lankan Navy in the sliver of water between India and Sri Lanka. Unnoticed, the Palk Strait has become the scene of inhuman torture, humiliation and savage murder over the past 20 years. And in the past six months, the violence has been accelerating — 72 men have been killed. Nearly 400 have lost their lives till now, more than 2,000 are injured and almost 90 have gone missing. And this is not even war.
As TEHELKA travelled along the Palk Bay — districts of Ramanathapuram, Tuticorin, Pudukottai and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu — every fisherman seemed to have a gruesome story. And more often than not, a scar to prove it. In Rameswaram, Shekhar lifts his shirt to show a shiny crescent on his back — the scar from a bullet extraction surgery. In Mandapam, Jayaseelan shows his right hand — the thumb has been blown off. In Pudukottai, 18-year-old Joseph cannot straighten his legs, beaten to pulp with an iron club last year. His father has lost an eye. All of them recite Sinhalese abuses hurled at them by the Sri Lankan Navy. They vividly describe their “sky-blue-darkblue” uniforms. Some have saved bullets that lay like pebbles on their boat deck after a fishing expedition.
Law breakers Banned double nets are still used, reveals Govindasamy
PHOTO: ROHINI MOHAN
Missing kin Senthil holds the daughter of his dead brother Jayakumar
Long wait As the men leave for sea, their wives are a picture of anxiety
Yet, day after day, even before the sun rises over the Bay of Bengal, these fishermen venture back into the sea. Into the same waters in which their friends and family have been shot.
In the grey pre-dawn light, Govindasamy stands in a checked lungi on his large blue boat anchored in the fish-bloodstained harbour of Chegathapattinam in Pudukottai district. The shore is teeming with shirtless, lungi-clad men carrying iceboxes, baskets, ropes and nets. Rows of hefty boats, just de-anchored, dance in the incessant lift and throw of the waves.
Govindasamy’s wife, along with wives of other fishermen, watches quietly from the shore. She has woken earlier than her husband to pack tiffin boxes with old rice soaked in water, karuvaadu (dried and salted fish), pickle sachets, and a bottle of Coca Cola. One by one, the engines roar to a start. Diesel smoke chokes the air. Three more men get on the boat. Govindasamy’s wife waves goodbye to his indifferent back. Chegathapattinam’s morning din fades as the boat pulls away.
Govindasamy is two years short of 50, and has been fishing since he was six. He points to his tiffin box, whose contents should last him 15 hours. He recalls that earlier, his fishing trips used to last only 5-6 hours.
“Without fail, we would be home for dinner,” recalls Govindasamy. In the past decade, especially the past five years, he has been spending longer hours, sailing further away from the coastline. Today, each trip lasts for at least 20 hours, and almost always, he crosses into Sri Lankan waters. “That’s the only place where we catch any fish,” he says. “Our Indian side is completely barren.”
IN THE late 1960s, in a bid to expand fisheries exports, the Tamil Nadu government had urged traditional fishermen like Govindasamy to opt for bigger and more powerful engine-driven boats. The government gave loans and discounts for trawlers — massive mechanised boats with powerful engines that drag heavybottomed nets through the sea bed, trapping all aquatic life in its way.
“Fishermen were catching three-four times more than they had in the previous decades,” says V Vivekanandan, adviser to the South Indian Federation of Fishermen’s Societies (SIFFS). Today, the state has more than 10,000 trawlers. “Bottom trawling was making fishermen rich, and the boat owners and exporters richer.”
But this came at a price. Excessive bottom trawling has swept the Indian sea bed clean. Fishermen find their nets coming up emptier. Today, the Indian side of the Palk Strait is one of the most over-fished coasts in the country. On a daily basis, fishermen across the Palk Bay are forced to choose between a dry coastline and the dangerously rich sea beyond it.
Marked for lifeShekhar of Rameswaram shows his bullet scar
Death notice A poster in Pudukottai mourns the killing of Veerapandian
After hours of yanking levers, dragging nets out, and looping rusty chains into hooks, Govindasamy leans on a ledge holding down the net. Behind him, the Indian shoreline begins to disappear. He dips his hand in the water. “We used to have things like the 300-metre double nets, which could only be pulled by two boats,” he says. “It can cost up to a lakh rupees, but each time you use it, you can earn at least Rs. 75,000. It just scoops up every single thing in the sea.” Double nets are now banned, but Govindasamy and his crew say that they are still indiscriminately used. “In broad daylight too!” says the youngest in the crew, 19-year-old Satish. “Fisheries Department officials just need to be bribed, and they will look the other way.”
THERE IS only ocean around the crew now. As he yells out instructions, Govindasamy’s gold tooth glints in the sun. Satish monkeys up on top of the mast, where the Indian flag — its saffron bleached into a yellow by the sea air — has been fluttering. Satish wraps it up and jumps down. Govindasamy says it is to attract less attention. “We have done 22 nautical miles. We will soon enter Sri Lankan territory,” he confesses.
Before Satish, it was Govindasamy’s son Guna who used to accompany him. One blinding noon in 2008, Guna was shot in the chest as his boat passed Delft island in Sri Lanka. When Govindasamy had pleaded with the navymen to stop shooting, they asked him to hang by his hands from a netpulley. They thrashed an iron rod on his knees. “India po!” (Go back to India) they yelled. Another crew member was stripped naked, made to lie on an ice slab and another one placed on him, like a sandwich.
Fishermen on six other boats stood a few metres away, watching. They had witnessed this scene several times before. And as they had done for years, they pulled up their full nets and turned around at breakneck speed.
By the time Govindasamy’s boat reached home, his son had bled out. It took a year’s treatment and a knee-replacement surgery for Govindasamy to be able to walk again. Pointing to his limb now, he calls it a gift from the Sri Lankan Navy.
Senthil saw his brother gasping in the sea, unable to breathe or swim, or scream for help
Agreed upon by the respective governments in 1976, the 400-km maritime border between India and Sri Lanka has never been adhered to by fishermen. As Govindasamy says, “If fish don’t follow maritime borders, then why should fishermen?” For years, fishing boats from both countries have habitually crossed into each others’ territory. S Thavaratnam, president of the Federation of Fishermen’s Cooperatives of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, believes that the Palk Strait is a common heritage, but that Indian fishermen have taken this too far. “Sri Lankan boats can’t go out because all the time, there are Indian trawlers in our side.” Sri Lanka has banned bottom trawling to preserve its fish resources, but Tamil Nadu fishermen still trawl there.
New Delhi-based Sugiswara Senadheera, minister councillor to the Sri Lankan High Commissioner, says Jaffna’s fishermen have asked the navy to strictly enforce the maritime boundary. “After destroying their own coast, they are coming to ours,” says Thavaratnam. “Very soon, we’ll also be left with nothing.”
In this fight for a bit of sea, however, it is still inexplicable why triggers must be pulled. Why bullets must rain on what is essentially a battle over resources. Violators of maritime boundaries, across the world, are considered civilian offenders. They are jailed for a while, and sent back to their country. But in the Palk Strait, in the liquid space between two ‘friendly’ countries, more than 400 men have been victims of a fatally disproportionate reaction.
‘If fish don’t follow maritime borders, then why should fishermen?’ asks Govindasamy
For close to 20 years, when the Sri Lankan Navy said they were “not shooting innocent fishermen”, they implied that the fishermen they shot were not innocent. During the ethnic war in Sri Lanka between the insurgent Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the armed forces, it was believed that arms, explosives and medicines were smuggled from the Tamil Nadu coast. “It wasn’t just fish and fishermen on the boats then,” says Senadheera. “We were facing a security problem.”
RAVINA RANI’s husband was one such victim of doubt. Sebastian, then just 25, was shot dead in 1994, less than a year after his marriage. “I filed an FIR on the same day,” says Rani, looking exhausted. “They kept asking me if he smuggled explosives, if he was a Tamil terrorist. I said ‘No’ over and over again, but nobody heard.” The investigation was dropped. In the 26 years of war, every time an Indian fisherman was shot at sea, his innocence was in doubt.
Today, however, the LTTE is no more. There is no room for suspicion. Still, the murders at sea are on the rise. When Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to talk about the shootings early this year, Senadheera says she provided “evidence of navy involvement, following which an inquiry has been ordered”.
For years, men of the sea were being shot unnoticed, but it is only now that there is the smallest public outcry. When news of Jayakumar’s brutal strangling at sea made the papers, fishermen across Tamil Nadu staged a protest march. Twitter accounts have been abuzz with calls for justice and protection for the fishermen.
AIADMK, the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu, saw in it a political opportunity, thanks to upcoming Assembly election. Party chief J Jayalalithaa went to Nagapattinam to visit the family. BJP’s Sushma Swaraj followed from Delhi, to take on the ruling Congress alliance, which includes the DMK, the state’s ruling party.
Both Jayalalithaa and Swaraj, however, opted for political expediency. They repeat over and over that the murders will end if India reclaims an island called Katchatheevu in the Palk Strait.
It is still inexplicable why triggers must be pulled in what is essentially a battle over resources
This uninhabited island was ceded by India to Sri Lanka in 1974, and was, a decade ago, considered the last illegal point in the Palk Strait to which Indian fishermen sailed for prawns and coral. Today, Indian fishermen admit that they have been sailing beyond Katchatheevu, as close as 500 metres to the northern Sri Lankan coast. And here, and not Katchatheevu, is where they get shot most often.
“The Indian government prefers to focus on Katchatheevu, which is a closed chapter,” says U Arulanandam, founder of a civil society group that is trying to stop the killings by organising dialogues between Sri Lankan and Indian fishermen. “Because if the Indian government admits that our fishermen are crossing borders, that means they have a massive long-term responsibility too, to ban big boats, and to improve fish resources on our side.” Shrugging, he adds, “But who wants real solutions if they won’t reap political benefits?”
Fishermen like Govindasamy know the risks every time they decide to cross over. “We have no choice if our side is barren,” he says. “When I cross, only I run the risk of being killed. But if I don’t cross the border, my entire family will starve.”
Two days after TEHELKA met him, Govindasamy took a trawler far too close to the Lankan border. His boat was captured and destroyed by the Lankan Navy, and he was beaten again. Calling from the hospital, his wife sobs over the phone, “At this point, I don’t know who to be angry with — this man and his adventures at sea, or the crazy men with guns.”