Katchatheevu between India and Sri Lanka: Let it not become a point of friction

By NS Venkataraman*

Katchatheevu, a 285-acre uninhabited island in the Palk Strait, between India and Sri Lanka and about 33 km from the Indian coast, has suddenly become a matter of acrimonious debate, in India today, as Indian parliamentary elections will take place in the next few days.

There have been claim by both Sri Lanka and India, both of which were under British rule for several centuries, about the ownership of Katchatheevu for very long time. Finally, a settlement was reached in the year 1974, when Government of India agreed that Katchatheevu would be part of Sri Lanka, which mean that India has given up it’s claim on Katchatheevu.

While it was thought that the matter has been settled once for all, there have been considerable unhappiness about this decision of Government of India amongst the fishing community in the coastal region in Tamil Nadu, who have been using the Katchatheevu island for resting and drying their nets etc. for several decades.

Election time issue

Meanwhile, some political parties in Tamil Nadu have been demanding that Katchatheevu should be claimed back by India. This thoughtless demand has not been considered by the Government of India, and obviously this demand cannot be considered in future also.

What is the reason for this Katchatheevu matter erupting into an explosive discussion in India today?

The reason is that the ruling party (DMK) in Tamil Nadu has been demanding that Katchatheevu should be retrieved and has written several letters to the Prime Minister reiterating this demand. The DMK made it an electoral issue, whipping up passion, particularly amongst fishermen, as a strategy for vote bank politics in the ongoing election season in India.

In this scenario, Prime Minister has pointed out that the decision to give up rights on Katchatheevu was taken by the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, with the full knowledge of the then DMK Chief Minister in Tamil Nadu, and for all practical purposes then DMK government then did not protest and its members in Parliament remained silent on the matter.

The essence of the accusation of Prime Minister Modi is that while present DMK government in Tamil Nadu is demanding that Katchatheevu should be taken back by India, the fact is that it was the then DMK government and the then Congress government who took the decision to give up the claim on Katchatheevu.

Further, the document released under the Right to Information Act reveals that the approval of Parliament was not obtained before giving up the claim on Katchatheevu and Parliament was only informed later.

What is to be noted here is the ongoing bitter debate in India on Katchatheevu is debate between political parties in India. Nowhere has the Indian Prime Minister or Indian Foreign Minister has stated that Katchatheevu would be taken back by India, though some political parties in Tamil Nadu are trying to misinterpret for political convenience to state that Government of India would take back Katchatheevu island in future.

Need for holistic approach

It is well recognised in India that Indian fishermen face some issues, as they cannot utilise the Katchatheevu island to carry out the fishing activity, as they were doing earlier before the year 1974.

What is required is that both Government of India and Sri Lankan government need to take a holistic view of the matter in approaching the issue, particularly keeping in view the common interests of both the countries and historical, traditional and cultural relationship between both the countries. A matured discussion between Indian government and Sri Lankan government can certainly find a way, that can elegantly find a solution, keeping the interests of fishermen in India and Sri Lanka.

In all probability this heated discussion on Katchatheevu in India would last only till 4th of June, 2024 when the result of the parliamentary election would be declared in India.

When the dust would settle down, an appropriate solution can be certainly arrived at.

Unfortunately, in the democratic set up in India and Sri Lanka, often politicians and owners of some media houses and a few journalists with vested interests say and write provocatively to keep the issue burning to serve their narrow political interest.

Anyway, the discerning observers both in India and Sri Lanka realise that both the countries need to have healthy and good relationships for mutual benefits. It is hoped that the Indian Prime Minister who started the current heated discussion to expose Tamil Nadu’s ruling party DMK’s double game, must tone down, to create appropriate climate for discussions with Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government also should not overreact and understand the trends and utterances during the election period, which seem to be similar both in India and Sri Lanka.

---

*Trustee, Nandini Voice For The Deprived, Chennai

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog