Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai’s claim that India is working to reclaim the Katchatheevu has given a diplomatic spin to the raging controversy, prompting Sri Lanka to maintain that the island remains within its control, even as a former diplomat cautioned the Centre against pushing Sri Lanka to China’s sphere of influence like Maldives.
“Katchatheevu was given to Sri Lanka with the consent of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi…Now, the BJP has given a letter to EAM Jaishankar to get back Katchatheevu. It should be brought back to India; this is our stand. Centre is trying everything possible to bring back Katchatheevu to protect fishermen,” Annamalai said.
Sri Lankan minister Jeevan Thondaman denied receiving official communications from India regarding Katchatheevu, but asserted that the island remains in its territory.
“As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, Katchatheevu Island falls within the Sri Lankan line of control….So far, there has not been an official communication from India to return the powers of Katchatheevu island….If there is such a communication, the foreign ministry will reply to that,” Jeevan Thondaman told The Indian Express.
NO ONE CAN DEMAND A CHANGE: SRI LANKA MINISTER
Another minister has also thrown his weight behind Jeevan Thondaman’s statements on the Katchatheevu on maintaining national boundaries, saying these “cannot be changed as per wishes,” the report mentioned.
“Katchatheevu was formally recognised inside Sri Lanka’s line of control. Once the boundary is decided, no one can demand a change just because of a change in government,” the minister told The Indian Express.
Apart from Annamalai, another BJP leader, too, has claimed that the BJP leadership will be making a major announcement on the Katchatheevu island, which grabbed headlines recently after the BJP state unit chief visited Sri Lanka in 2022. PM Modi has now accused the Congress of giving it away callously in 1974. External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, too, has doubled down on PM Modi’s allegations on the Congress.
“We are talking about 1958 and 1960… The main people in the case wanted to make sure that at least we should get the fishing rights… The island was given away in 1974 and the fishing rights were given away in 1976… One, the most basic recurring (aspect) is the indifference shown by the then central government and the PMs about the territory of India…That fact is they simply did not care…,” Jaishankar said.
As the controversy rages in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, the question is whether the row will “damage” India’s relations with a neighbouring country? A former diplomat thinks so.
In a social media post on X, KC Singh slammed Jaishankar and said, “India raising #Kachchatheevu is domestic politics stumping diplomacy & relations with Sri Lanka. That a seasoned diplomat like @DrSJaishankar is mouthing it damages his image.”
“It can push Sri Lanka back into Chinese arms like Maldives, while begetting BJP little gain in South,” he said.
Katchatheevu Island, a 285-acre stretch in the Palk Strait between Rameswaram in India and Sri Lanka, is located about 33 kilometres from the Indian coast. Katchatheevu had been a disputed territory between India and Sri Lanka since the British era.
The Congress government led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi agreed to cede it to the island nation under the 1974 “Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime Agreement.” This is how Katchatheevu became part of Sri Lanka.
The BJP has raked up the controversy in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu. The Congress has slammed the BJP’s double standards on the row by digging out a 2015 RTI reply which mentions the NDA government had justified the circumstances under which India handed over the island. Jaishankar was the foreign minister then, Congress leader Chidambaram said.
