“Eye-opening and startling!” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his X post on Sunday. “New facts reveal how Congress callously gave away Katchatheevu.”
With that, the Prime Minister hooked the tiny island, which lies between Rameswaram and northern Sri Lanka, into the election narrative.
The 285-acre uninhabited island, located 25 km off the Rameswaram coast, has been at the heart of a long-standing dispute between fishermen in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, as it has a bearing on maritime boundaries. Indian (Tamil Nadu’s) fishermen arrested by Sri Lanka for boundary trespasses have been a regular feature and a sore point in the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
Modi further said on X: “We can’t ever trust the Congress. Weakening India’s unity, integrity, and interests has been Congress’ way of working for 75 years and counting.”
The allusion is to the allegation that the island was “ceded” to Sri Lanka by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1974, when DMK leader Muthuvel Karunanidhi was Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. Ever since, detractors of Congress and the DMK have been blaming the two parties for compromising India’s sovereignty.
Under the agreement, each side has sovereignty on its side of the island. The island itself belongs to Sri Lanka, but Indian fishermen may dry their nets on it, and Indian pilgrims may visit the church of St. Anthony (the patron saint of seafarers) without requiring a passport. The church, built by one Srinivasa Padaiyachi, is the only structure on the island; there is not even another shelter.
Reacting to Prime Minister Modi’s X post, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that Modi’s “desperation is palpable.”
He said, “You have suddenly woken up to the issues of territorial integrity and national security in your 10th year of misrule. Perhaps elections are the trigger.”
He said that in 1974, a similar agreement, based on friendly gestures, was initiated with another country, Sri Lanka, on Katchatheevu. On the eve of elections in Tamil Nadu, you are raising this sensitive issue, but your own government’s Attorney General, Mukul Rohtagi, in 2014 told the Supreme Court that “Katchatheevu went to Sri Lanka by an agreement in 1974. How can it be taken back today? If you want Katchatheevu back, you will have to go to war to get it back.”
Kharge said, “You should tell, did your government take any steps to resolve this issue and take back Katchatheevu?”
DMK spokesperson S Manuraj said it is an “outdated” political campaign matter.
The issue surfaced following a news report based on replies received under a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by BJP’s Tamil Nadu chief, K Annamalai.
Annamalai, in a video on X, charged that the DMK colluded with the Congress to cede the island to Sri Lanka. On May 10, 1961, the first Prime Minister of the country, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru dismissed the issue as inconsequential and added that he had no hesitation in giving up claims to the island.
For years, the island has been a major political issue, with both the Dravidian parties — the DMK and the AIADMK — promising to retrieve it.