he Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution on Wednesday asking the Centre to retrieve the Katchatheev islet from Sri Lanka. According to seasoned diplomats, it is nothing other than an eye wash.
“It is an internationally accepted agreement signed between two sovereign countries, India and Sri Lanka in 1974 and 1976. What were the Tamil Nadu politicians doing all these decades?” asks TP Srinivasan, former Indian Ambassador.
Late J Jayalalithaa, former chief minister and AIADMK supremo, staged a one-woman war for retrieval of Katchatheev from Sri Lanka. She even filed a petition in Supreme Court in 2008 asking for the same. Mukul Rohatgi, the Attorney General of India during 2014-2017 was asked by the apex court about the possibility of retrieving the islet from Sri Lanka to which he replied, “The only option is to wage a war against Sri Lanka.”
The islet situated close to Rameswaram was transferred to Sri Lanka as per international agreements signed by Indira Gandhi and her counterpart Sirimao Bandaranayake in 1974 and 1976. The International Maritime Boundary between the two sovereign republics were redrawn following the agreement. Indira Gandhi and the Congress party claimed that India got vast stretch of sea following the signing of the treaty.
Neither the DMK nor its leader M Karunanidhi uttered a word following the signing of the agreement. In 2013, when Karunanidhi was fighting against the AIADMK with his back to the wall, he dug up the Katchatheev issue and filed a case in the Supreme Court a la Jayalalithaa.
Security experts based in Chennai said that the 285 acre island has become a headache to India as the new ruling dispensation in Colombo is friendly to China than to India. There were reports in
Sri Lankan and Tamil media that hundreds of Chinese are making frequent visits to the island.
Indian and Sri Lankan fishermen used to fish in the territorial waters of Palk Strait where the island is located. Indian fishermens use of bottom trawling in the region this led to many clashes. By the 1974 agreement, Indian fishermen could dry their nets in the islet but no fishing was allowed. Everyday more than 1,000 fishing boats from Tamil Nadu trespass into the territorial waters of Sri Lanka, a treasure house of rare species of fish.
“Bottom trawling is a cruel act as it destroys the entire marine wealth of our coast line. The Tamil Nadu fishermen attack and scare away our fishers from our own land,” said Singa Ratnatunga, chief editor, Sunday Times, a leading newspaper in the island nation.
The Opposition BJP in Tamil Nadu, which too voted in favor of Thursdays resolution made it known that when Chief Minister Stalin does not have any other issues to attack the Centre, he passes a resolution demanding the retrieval of the islet. The St Antonys shrine at the islet draws hundreds of pilgrims from Tamil Nadu and they sail in fishing boats and catamarans to worship in the Church in the uninhabited island.
