NEW DELHI: The issue of Sri Lanka arresting Indian fishermen stems from an agreement during the Emergency under which their rights for fishing in some specific areas were given up, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday.The agreement with Sri Lanka would not have been possible if a genuine Parliament functioned at that time, Jaishankar said at an event organised by the BJP Yuva Morcha to mark the 50th anniversary of the Emergency.Katchatheevu, an uninhabited island was ceded to Sri Lanka by then Indira Gandhi regime in the country under a maritime agreement in 1974. Further, another agreement signed in 1976 restricted the fishermen of both countries from fishing in the other’s exclusive economic zones.Jaishankar said big decisions were sometimes taken without any parliamentary debate during the Emergency period.”We hear about our fishermen arrested by Sri Lanka. The reason is that an agreement was entered into during Emergency under which the rights of the fishermen for fishing in some sea waters of Sri Lanka was abandoned,” Jaishankar said.Had a genuine Parliament functioned at the time, there would have been a debate and this decision would not be accepted, the minister said.The consequences of this decision are still visible in Tamil Nadu, he added.Jaishankar said the image of India as the oldest and largest democracy in the world took a beating when the Emergency was imposed on June 25, 1975. He also recalled his own experiences of police raids at hostels of the Jawaharlal Nehru University and his family’s links with leaders like George Fernandes.”I heard from my seniors in the foreign service how difficult it was to defend India after the murder of the Constitution and democracy by the imposition of Emergency,” he said.
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