If Katchatheevu was a disputed territory between India and Sri Lanka, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s (AKD) unannounced visit to the barren island on 1 September may have stirred up a controversy. However, 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 are a lot of critical comments in the Indian political arena and in the media. The comments revolve around the question of what message the Sri Lankan President sought to convey, and to whom, through the visit.
In an article titled ‘Signal from a Lankan island,’ senior Indian journalist and political commentator Nirupama Subramanian wrote: “While India focused 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.”
Symbolic significance
The question arises as to 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 then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, did not care to visit Katchatheevu.
No prime minister or president who succeeded Bandaranaike ever visited the island. It is not known whether they were reluctant to visit the 285-acre area so as not to annoy India. President Dissanayake has become the first Sri Lankan Head of State to set foot on Katchatheevu.
Solidarity with northern fishers?
Immediately after Dissanayake’s visit there, the President’s Media Division released a brief statement saying that after participating in a series of inaugural events and development projects in Jaffna on the 1st, President AKD had made an inspection visit to Katchatheevu.
The statement added that he had been accompanied by Minister of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources Ramalingam Chandrasekar, Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs Ananda Wijepala, and Northern Naval Area Commander Rear Admiral Buddhika Liyanagamage.
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 the encroachments of Tamil Nadu fishermen in the Palk Strait. But the fishermen of the north are worried about Tamil Nadu fishermen coming closer to their shores and plundering marine resources, not about the barren island.
If India can find a solution to the problems of 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.
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, unsustainable practices by Tamil Nadu fishers such as bottom trawling, purse seine, and double net fishing have scraped up all but the dredges of marine resources on the Indian side of the Palk Strait. The Sri Lankan side, with more resources because 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 arrests 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.
State election rhetoric?
Tamil Nadu governments have so far passed four resolutions in the Legislative Assembly calling for the return of Katchatheevu to India.
In 2008, former Chief Minister J. 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 is expected to be heard again tomorrow (15).
Against this backdrop, popular actor and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) Leader Vijay appealed to Prime Minister Modi to retrieve Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka at his party’s convention in Madurai on 21 August.
“Nearly 800 Tamil Nadu fishermen have lost their lives due to attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy. I am not asking 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, dismissed Vijay’s demand as election-time talk. “Elections are going to be held in South India. Politicians say a lot of things during 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.
After President Dissanayake’s visit to Katchatheevu, addressing a press conference announcing Cabinet decisions on 4 September, Government Spokesman and Health Minister Nalinda Jayatissa noted that the President had not gone 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 fringe parties but even major parties are accustomed to putting forward demands that can stir the emotions of the people during elections. The Sri Lankan Tamil problem and the issue concerning Tamil Nadu fishermen are among them. As soon as the elections are over, the 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 made official announcements several times on the status of Katchatheevu, Tamil Nadu politicians continue to demand the return of the island in competition for votes of the fishing community.
Naam Tamilar Katchi Leader Seeman, who has been presenting himself as a fierce Tamil nationalist against the Dravidian movement, has warned in his usual maverick style that Tamil Nadu could secede from India if Katchatheevu is not retrieved from Sri Lanka. 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.
Modi’s stance
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 Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar showed interest in exploiting the 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 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 sufferings of Tamil Nadu fishermen in the Palk Strait.
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 the islet was ceded to Sri Lanka. After the Lok Sabha Elections, there were no reports of him talking about Katchatheevu.
Modi and his Foreign Minister only talked about the Katchatheevu treaty to campaign against the Congress and the DMK, but did not mention a word about reclaiming the island.
A recurring controversy
The Katchatheevu issue is likely to be exploited by parties in a big way in the campaign for the Tamil Nadu Legislative 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 had asked the Indian Government to hold talks with Colombo to ensure that the President’s visit was not considered a ‘free pass’ for the Sri Lankan Navy to attack Indian fishermen fishing near Katchatheevu.
Tamil Nadu Boat Fishermen’s Welfare Association Secretary N.J. Bose said that the Sri Lankan President’s visit was nothing but a direct challenge to Tamil Nadu’s demand for the retrieval of Katchatheevu, according to the Deccan Herald.
The Hindu Colombo Correspondent Meera Srinivasan wrote an article titled ‘A flashpoint in the Palk Strait’ on 7 September, which succinctly explained the real factors behind the Katchatheevu controversy in Tamil Nadu politics.
“Decades ago, fishermen from both sides used Katchatheevu as a resting point and a spot to dry out their nets. But, in recent history, most arrests of the Indian fishermen are made well past Katchatheevu, very close to Sri Lanka’s northern shores.
“Policymakers of the Indian side know where the problem lies. And politicians know that Katchatheevu offers no real solution to it. But unwilling to confront a key electorate with a difficult question, they habitually invoke it to divert attention from their own failure to resolve the festering fisheries conflict,” Srinivasan wrote.
It remains to be seen how the Indian Government will react to the President’s visit.
(The writer is a senior journalist based in Colombo)
(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this publication)