By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham

Colombo, September 7 –  If Katchatheevu was a disputed territory between India and Sri Lanka, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s  unannounced visit to the barren island last week (September 1) may have stirred up a controversy. But a visit by the President to a territory belonging to Sri Lanka has made Katchatheevu a talking point in political and diplomatic discourse.

The Indian government has not yet reacted to Dissanayake’s visit to Katchatheevu. But there is a lot of critical comments in the Indian political arena and in the media. The comments revolve around the question of what message, and to whom, the Sri Lankan President sought to convey through the visit.

In an article titled “Signal from a Lankan island,” a senior Indian journalists and political commentator Nirupama Subramanian wrote, ” while India focussed its eyes northwards, watching Prime Minister Narendra Modi  demonstrate brotherly  affection towards Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin for the cameras at Tianjin in China, India’s southern neighbour sent a quiet message to both New Delhi and Tamil Nadu.”

The question arises whether President Dissanayake would have felt the need to send a message to New Delhi at a time when relations between Sri Lanka and India are very cordial under the National People’s Power (NPP ) Government and New Delhi has not raised any issues regarding Katchatheevu with Colombo.

However, there is an opinion that Dissanayake may have visited the island to convey a message to the politicians of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, whose Legislative Assembly elections are due in six months, as they are once again pressing for the retrieval  of Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka.

Addressing the Tamils in Jaffna ahead of his visit to Katchatheevu, President Dissanayake said the island belonged to the people of Sri Lanka and that he would never allow anyone to take it away.

Dissanayake’s visit to Katchatheevu has a symbolic significance. Even former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who secured Katchatheevu for Sri Lanka by signing an agreement with the then  Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, did not care to visit Katchatheevu. No Prime Minister or President who succeeded her  had ever visited the island.  It is not known whether they were reluctant to visit the 285 sq km area so as not to annoy India..

Immediately after Dissanayake’s visit the Presidential Media released a brief statement saying that  after participating in a series of inaugural events and development projects in Jaffna the  President an inspection visit to Katchatheevu and that he  was accompanied by Minister of Fisheries, Ramalingam Chandrasekhar, the Minister of Public Safety and Parliamentary Affairs Ananda Wijepala and the Commander of the Northern Naval Command Rear Admiral Buddhika  Liyanakamage.

There is another view that the President could have gone to Katchatheevu as a “bold  gesture” to express his solidarity with the fishermen of the northern part of Sri Lanka, who have been badly affected by encroachments of Tamil Nadu fishermen in the Palk strait.  But the fishermen of the North are worried about the Tamil Nadu fishermen coming closer to their shores and plundering the marine resources, not about the barren island.

If India can find a solution to the problems of the Tamil Nadu  fishermen by reclaiming Katchatheevu, as the state politicians claim, the question arises as to why Indian fishermen come so close not only to the shores of the Jaffna peninsula, but also to the east coast.

Nirupama Subramanian’s opinion in her article on the encroachments of Indian fishermen is of great interest.

“Though it was never demarcated on any map of India, either in colonial era or in the Post – Independence period ,Tamil Nadu politicians frequently speak about ” taking back” the uninhabited island to soothe frayed tempers and nerves in the fishing jetties in Rameswaram. At the heart of the problem is the conflict over scarce resources between the Tamil fishers on either side of the waters.

” Simply put it, unsustainable practices by Tamil Nadu fishers such as bottom trawling, purse seine and double net fishing have scraped up all but the dregs of marine resources on the Indian side of the Palk Strait. The Sri Lankan side, with more resources because of Jaffna fishermen could not put out to sea due to the tough security restrictions during the 30 – year war, seems more attractive.”

” Near daily incursions by Indian fishermen into Sri Lankan waters sometimes end  with their arrest by the Sri Lankan Navy, seizures of their boats and nets, and sometimes, even fatalities.

” But instead of addressing the main challenge of creating alternative livelihoods or diversifying fisheries, leaders in the State have propped up the illusion that Katchatheevu is the answer to all their problems” Subramanian wrote.

Tamil Nadu governments have so far passed four resolutions in the Assembly calling for the return of Katchatheevu to India. In 2008, former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa filed a case in the Supreme Court against India’s agreement with Sri Lanka on Katchatheevu and the  Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government under Chief Minister M.K. Stalin  is currently pursuing the case which  will be heard again on September 15.

Against this backdrop, popular actor and Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK ) leader Vijay appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to retrieve Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka at his party’s convention  in Madurai on August 21.

” Nearly 800 Tamil Nadu fishermen have lost their lives due to the attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy. I am not asking the Prime Minister Modi to do anything big to condemn this. Please do something very small. Retrieve Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka at least now for our fishermen’s safety. That would be enough,” Vijay said.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, speaking at a press conference in Colombo, Vijay’s demand as election-time talk. “Elections are going to be held in South India. Politicians say a lot of things in an election. This isn’t the first time. Even in the past, demands for the return of Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka were made during election campaigns, “he said.

Addressing the press conference announcing the Cabinet decisions on Thursday (4) after President Dissanayake’s visit to Katchatheevu, Government Spokesman Health Minister Nalinda Jayatissa noted that the President did not go to Katchatheevu to react to the statements of  South Indian politicians and that there was no need to renegotiate the status of the  islet  belonging to Sri Lanka.

As far as Tamil Nadu politics is concerned, not only the fringe parties but even the major parties are used to put forward demands that can stir the emotions of the people during the elections. The Sri Lankan Tamil problem and the Tamil Nadu fishermen issue are among them. As soon as the elections are over, these demands usually subside.

For actor Vijay, who launched a new party last year, there is a political necessity to present himself as being entirely different from other politicians. Even though the central government of India has officially announced several times on the status of Katchatheevu, Tamil Nadu politicians continue to demand the return of the island in competition for the votes of the fishing community.

Seeman, the leader of the Naam Thamizhar Katchi, who has been  presenting  himself as an fierce Tamil nationalist against the Dravidian movement, has warned in his usual maverick tyle that Tamil Nadu could secede from India if Katchatheevu is not retrieved from India. Seeman, who fears a fall in popular support for his party as a result of Vijay’s entry into politics, seems to have a political compulsion to whip up ethnic nationalist sentiments to the hilt.

The campaigns for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections saw a marked shift from the usual trend of only Tamil Nadu state parties raking up the Katchatheevu issue during electioneering. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar showed interest in exploiting the Katchatheevu issue to win the support of the people of the state for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Pointing out that the agreement to cede Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka was signed during the tenure of Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister of India and M.  Karunanidhi as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu,  without respecting the sentiments of the people of the State,  Modi and Jaishankar said that the Congress and the DMK were mainly responsible for the suffering of Tamil Nadu fishermen in the Palk Strait.

Narendra Modi is the first Indian prime minister to raise the issue of the Katchatheevu agreement  during an election campaign in over half a century after it was ceded to Sri Lanka. After the Lok Sabha elections, there were no reports of him talking about Katchatheevu.

Modi and his Foreign Minister talked only about the Katchatheevu treaty to campaign against the Congress and the DMK, but did not mention a word about reclaiming the island.

The Katchatheevu issue is likely to be used by  parties in a big way in the campaign for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, expected to be held in April-May next year. The signs are already clearly visible.

Some Indian newspapers have reported that President Dissanayake’s visit to Katchatheevu has raised fears among fishermen of Ramanathapuram, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu that attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy could intensify again. The Deccan Herald reported that representatives of fishermen’s associations have asked the Indian government to hold talks with Colombo to ensure that the President’s visit is not considered a “free pass” for the Sri Lankan Navy to attack Indian fishermen fishing  near the Katchatheevu.

Tamil Nadu Boat Fishermen’s Association president N.J. Bose said the Sri Lankan President’s  visit was nothing but a direct challenge to Tamil Nadu’s demand for the retrieval of Katchatheevu,  Deccan Herald reported.

It remains to be seen how the Indian government will react to the President’s visit.

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