- Monday, February 24, 2025
PM Modi and his BJP have attacked the opposition Indian National Congress and the ruling party of Tamil Nadu over giving away of the little island of Katchatheevu to the island nation in 1974.
By: Shubham Ghosh
EVER since Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) raised the issue of New Delhi ceding the small island of Katchatheevu off the coast of the southern state of Tami Nadu to Sri Lanka five decades ago, the island-nation has said that it doesn’t feel there is a need to re-open talks over the contentious land body today.
“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 his country’s Hiru television channel on Wednesday (3).
“I don’t think it will come up,” he said, adding that no one had yet raised the question of a change in the island’s status. Katchatheevu is located 33 kilometres off India’s coast in the Palk Strait that divides the maritime neighbours.
Read: Tamil Nadu politics erupts over Katchatheevu island row ahead of election
The low-key territorial squabble has turned to a burning election issue in India as Modi’s BJP and its opposition, particularly the parties in Tamil Nadu, have locked horns over a blame game over ceding the island.
Read: Modi tears into Congress for ‘callously’ giving away island to Sri Lanka
Modi and his party have accused the opposition Indian National Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the ruling party of Tamil Nadu, of sacrificing the nation’s interest by giving away the island and making life difficult for the Indian fishermen who are often caught and arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy, causing frictions in the two nations’ relations.
The DMK and its state rival All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had also accused each other in the past of not taking care of Tamil Nadu’s interests in terms of the island’s cession.
The BJP, which is expected to win general elections that kick off on April 19 and return to power for the third consecutive term, has flagged the issue of Indian fishermen discontented following a 1976 pact between the neighbours that barred them from the waters around the island. The island was ceded by India’s then Indira Gandhi government in 1974.
Modi said over the weekend that the Congress had “callously” given the island, which measures 115 hectares, to the neighbouring country, triggering a massive row.
According to observers, the BJP has raised the matter ahead of the election in which it wants to make serious inroads into Tamil Nadu, a state where it has traditionally been a weak player despite the Modi wave. In the 2019 general elections, it failed to win a single seat in the state that sends 39 members to the Lok Sabha or popularly elected Lower House of the parliament. The opposition United Progressive Alliance (now Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) comprising the DMK and Congress won 35 seats.
The BJP is without a major ally in Tamil Nadu this election as the AIADMK, which won the only seat that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance won in the state in 2019, refused to go with it.
