The offensive campaign leading up to the Lok Sabha elections 2024 is ongoing, with PM Narendra Modi once again launching an attack on Sunday, March 31st. He criticized the Congress party’s decision, revealed under the Right to Information Act, to “callously give away” the island of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka.
He posted on X, “Eye-opening and startling! New facts reveal how Congress callously gave away #Katchatheevu. This has angered every Indian and reaffirmed in people’s minds — we can’t ever trust Congress!”
Even though people have been talking about giving away Katchatheevu since 1974, it’s still a big argument between India and Sri Lanka. Now, with elections coming up, the BJP Tamil Nadu Chief K Annamalai got documents about the island using an RTI report. This has made the topic really important in the state and has caused a lot of debate.
So, let’s start with where the Island is located.
Katchatheevu is a 285-acre uninhabited speck in the Palk Strait, between India and Sri Lanka. It is no more than 1.6 km in length and slightly over 300 m wide at its broadest point.
It lies northeast of Rameswaram, about 33 km from the Indian coast. Fishermen from districts like Rameswaram often visit the island because there’s not enough fish in Indian waters. They have to cross the International Maritime Border Line (IMBL) to reach the island, but when they do, the Sri Lankan Navy detains them.
Island’s History
Having originated from a volcanic eruption in the 14th century, Katchatheevu is relatively young in geological terms.
In the medieval era, it was under the control of the Jaffna kingdom in Sri Lanka. By the 17th century, authority shifted to the Ramnad zamindari located in Ramanathapuram, approximately 55 km northwest of Rameswaram.
During the British Raj, it became part of the Madras Presidency. However, in 1921, both India and Sri Lanka, then British colonies, claimed ownership of Katchatheevu to delineate fishing boundaries. A survey identified Katchatheevu as belonging to Sri Lanka, but a British delegation from India contested this, asserting the island’s ownership by the Ramnad kingdom.
This dispute remained unresolved until 1974.
What do the Documents revealed by the RTI say?
The report mentioned that the first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, said he wouldn’t mind giving up India’s claims to the island. It also said that the then Foreign Secretary, Kewal Singh, told the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi, about the decision to give Katchatheevu Island to Sri Lanka in 1975.
In this message, Singh talked about the land rights of the Raja of Ramnad/Ramnathapuram. He also mentioned that Sri Lanka didn’t provide enough evidence to prove its claim to the island. However, Singh also mentioned that Sri Lanka was very determined about having Katchatheevu, using historical records like Dutch and British maps that showed the island as part of the kingdom of Jaffnapatnam.
According to the documents obtained by Annamalai, Singh further stated that Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) had been claiming ownership of the island since 1925 without any disagreement from India. To support this, Singh referred to an opinion by attorney MC Setalvad, who said Katchatheevu “was and is with Sri Lanka and not India.”
Congress VS BJP War of Words
Union Home Minister Amit Shah chided the Congress and said the party “did not have regrets” after “willingly” giving up Katchatheevu.
“Slow claps for Congress! They willingly gave up Katchatheevu and had no regrets about it either. Sometimes an MP of the Congress speaks about dividing the nation and sometimes they denigrate Indian culture and traditions. This shows that they are against the unity and integrity of India. They only want to divide or break our nation,” he wrote on X.
BJP’s response then triggered Senior Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said that the Prime Minister has brought this matter out in public “because elections are going on in Tamil Nadu”. He added that all the surveys so far show the BJP “will be badly smashed” in the southern state.
The Congress leader went on saying that, “The problem with the PM is he makes statements without any references. If any agreement like this was made, we should know what it was… Secondly, what PM was doing for 9 years then? If he was in a position of this information, why was the PM quiet about it all this while? These are selective pieces of propaganda that they fake out. It is all because elections are going on in Tamil Nadu. All the surveys show the BJP will be badly smashed in Tamil Nadu,”.
