Katchatheevu row: An island that had been ceded to the Sri Lanka decades ago had found new found importance in poll conversations initiated by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, looking to bag Tamil Nadu for the Lok Sabha polls 2024. However, Sri Lankan foreign minister has responded days after the controversy broke out, stating that Sri Lanka does not see any need to re-open talks on a contentious island ceded to it by New Delhi 50 years ago.
The BJP, and PM Modi has been using the Katchatheevu island to slam Congress leaders in the run up to the Lok Sabha Elections 2024. BJP seeks to make election inroads in Tamil Nadu facing the Katchatheevu island, after failing to win any of the southern state’s 39 seats in India’s 545-member parliament in the last election.
The low-key territorial squabble that turned into a hot-button election issue in India, owing to BJP’s instigation, has now garnered international reaction. The BJP claimed that Indian fishermen has been discontented after a 1976 pact with Sri Lanka barred them from the waters around the island.
“This is a problem discussed and resolved 50 years ago and there is no necessity to have further discussions on this,” Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry told the domestic Hiru television channel on Wednesday.
“I don’t think it will come up,” he said, adding that no one had yet raised the question of a change in the status of the island, located 33 km (21 miles) off India’s coast in the Palk Strait that divides the neighbours.
Ex-Sri-Lankan envoys says ‘BJP invoked a vote-puller’
In an interview with Indian Express, respected former Sri Lankan envoy to India Austin Fernando, has accused the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) of invoking a ‘vote puller’ and warned that the Indian Government would encounter ‘problem’ if they were to step back later.
In the interview, Fernando also said that if the India crosses the Sri Lankan maritime international boundary line, it would be seen as a “violation of Sri Lankan sovereignty”.
“If Pakistan proposes such sea encroachment near Goa, will India tolerate it? Or if Bangladesh does something like this in the Bay of Bengal, what will be India’s response?,” asked Fernando.
In the interview the former Sri Lankan envoy to India said, “BJP does not have much of a hold in Tamil Nadu comparatively, so it has sparked off a vote-puller.”
Katchatheevu Island row
The Katchatheevu island had been ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974, in lieu of a pact between both governments. According to reports, fisherfolks of both countries occasionally violated the pact on the waters around the uninhabited island.
On Monday, EAM Jaishankar had claimed Sri Lanka had detained more than 6,000 Indian fishermen and 1,175 fishing vessels over the last 20 years, following the no-fishing pact.
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Published: 04 Apr 2024, 04:46 PM IST