The controversy over India ceding the island of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka in 1974 escalated on April 1 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged news reports on the issue for a second day and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar declaring that previous Congress governments had given away the rights of Indian fishermen in that area and were refusing to own responsibility for the same.
Also read: Explained | The Katchatheevu controversy
Mr. Modi in a post on X, flagged a second news report on the issue that dealt with the DMK, under then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi being in the know of the ceding of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka. “Rhetoric aside, DMK has done NOTHING to safeguard Tamil Nadu’s interests. New details emerging on #Katchatheevu have UNMASKED the DMK’s double standards totally. Congress and DMK are family units. They only care that their own sons and daughters rise. They don’t care for anyone else. Their callousness on Katchatheevu has harmed the interests of our poor fishermen and fisherwomen in particular,” he said in his post.
Mr. Jaishankar, in his press conference at the BJP’s headquarters early on April 1, stressed that it was wrong to say that the ceding of Katchatheevu was an “old issue” being resurrected keeping Lok Sabha polls in mind. “It has been frequently raised in Parliament and has been a matter of frequent correspondence between the Centre and the State government,” Mr. Jaishankar said, adding that he had replied to the current Chief Minister (M.K. Stalin) “at least 21 times”.
He claimed that Prime Ministers from the Congress displayed indifference about Katchatheevu island and gave away Indian fishermen’s rights despite legal views to the contrary. Referring frequently to documents obtained by BJP Tamil Nadu chief K. Annamalai under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, Mr. Jaishankar said that while the 1974 pact ensured fishing rights for Indian fishermen, a 1976 agreement between India and Sri Lanka ended them. “We know who did it, today we are looking for who hid it,” he said. He also gave details of legal views obtained from then Attorney General M.C. Setalvad in 1958, where he said that India could present a good case for claiming the island and later in 1960, the External Affairs Ministry’s legal expert in international law, Krishna Rao, had also maintained that even if India’s claim was not upheld in full, there was a good case for upholding customary rights of Indian fishermen in those waters.
He revealed that in the last 20 years, 6,184 Indian fishermen had been detained by the Sri Lankans, and 1,185 fishing vessels had been seized.
Prime Ministers such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi dubbed Katchatheevu, given to Sri Lanka in 1974 as part of a maritime boundary agreement, as a “little island” and “little rock”, he said, asserting that the issue had not cropped up abruptly but was always a live matter.
Attacking the DMK over its public posturing against the agreement, Mr. Jaishankar said its leader and then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi was kept fully informed about the agreement, first reached in 1974 between India and Sri Lanka.
“The Congress and DMK raised the issue in Parliament as if they bear no responsibility for it, while they are the parties which did it,” he said, adding that the DMK very much “connived” with the Congress in 1974 and afterwards in creating this situation.
It was the Modi government which had been working to ensure that the Indian fishermen were released, he said, adding, “we have to find a solution. We have to sit down and work it out with the Sri Lankan government.”
He claimed the people of Tamil Nadu had long been misled over the issue and that he was speaking on the matter to inform the masses.
