Katchatheevu is located about 33 km from the Indian coast near Rameswaram
New Delhi:
A small island between India and Sri Lanka on Palk Straight has become the latest flashpoint between the Congress and the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Katchatheevu Island, a disputed territory, was given to Sri Lanka through an agreement in 1974 by the Congress government led by late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Katchatheevu – about 33 km from the Indian coast near Rameswaram – has been a disputed area between India and Sri Lanka since the British period. At the time, both nations were British colonies. The British, citing the traditional claims of the Ramnad zamindari of Ramanathapuram, had attached it to the Madras Presidency.
But after independence, the dispute broke out again over fishing rights around the island.
To settle the dispute and strengthen ties with Sri Lanka, the Indira Gandhi-led government had agreed to cede the land to the island nation under the 1974 “Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime Agreement”.
At the time, the uninhabited volcanic island – 1.6 kilometers long and about 300 meters wide – was thought to have little strategic value. But in recent decades, the situation has changed due to the rise of China and its growing influence in Sri Lanka.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi last night claimed that the Congress was “heartlessly” giving it away to Sri Lanka. “Eye-opening and startling! New facts reveal how Congress heartlessly gave away Katchatheevu. This has angered every Indian and reaffirmed in people’s minds that we can never trust Congress,” Prime Minister Modi wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, who doubled down on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s complaint to the Opposition over the Katchatheevu Island row, today said that Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first Prime Minister, wanted to give away the island to Sri Lanka .
Reacting to the comments, senior DMK leader RS Bharathi said the Prime Minister has “no achievements” to show. “If PM Modi was interested in Katchatheevu, he could have recaptured that island during his 10 years as president. Why didn’t he raise the Katchatheevu issue?” said Mr. Bharathi.
The argument was supported by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge. Katchatheevu Island was given to Sri Lanka in 1974 as part of a friendly agreement, Mr Kharge added, noting that the BJP-led government had also undertaken a similar “friendly gesture” towards Bangladesh in the exchange of border enclaves.