Express View: Don’t politicise Katchatheevu

Foreign policy claims, and photo-ops and images that frame India’s place in the world, are increasingly making an appearance in the national election campaign. The Narendra Modi-led BJP, especially, has made concerted efforts on this count, in its bid to project its government’s “successes” abroad to reap an electoral dividend at home. However, its raking up of the dispute over Katchatheevu — an island located 33 km off the coast of Tamil Nadu — in an attempt to score points over its rival, Congress, as the poll campaign kicks off, is troubling. It underlines the difficulties and dangers of importing a delicate diplomatic issue that requires careful negotiation into the cut and thrust of an overheated campaign. Following a news report, based on documents obtained by BJP state chief K Annamalai through an RTI application, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Congress “callously gave away” the island to Sri Lanka in 1974 and that the DMK “has done nothing to safeguard Tamil Nadu’s interest”. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that both parties “have approached this matter as though they have no responsibility for it”. PM Modi and Minister Jaishankar may have spoken while wearing their political hats, but especially on a matter as sensitive as this one, there can be no tidy separation from the office they hold in government.

For decades before an agreement was signed between the Indira Gandhi and Sirimavo Bandaranaike governments, both India and Sri Lanka had staked claim to the 285-acre islet in the Palk Strait. It has continued to be an emotive issue in Tamil Nadu. Successive dispensations in the state, including the current one led by the DMK, have cited the agreement’s effects on traditional fishing rights and fishermen’s livelihoods to demand action from the Centre. That the BJP has now sought to stoke this issue as it seeks to expand its footprint in the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, is not surprising. Tamil Nadu has long been a challenge for the BJP, where it has come up against the still formidable wall of Dravidian politics and pride. The BJP’s electoral calculus and the state’s salience in it is evident in the multiple visits by the PM in the run-up to the election.

With around 8,40,000 Indian Tamils (“up country” or “estate” Tamils) in Sri Lanka and about 1,00,000 Sri Lankan Tamils in India, the Katchatheevu issue requires subtle navigation that acknowledges the many layers of the dispute. For India, there are certainly concerns that need to be addressed, among them the number of fishermen who, after straying out of Indian waters, have been detained — till March, according to the Sri Lankan navy, 178 Indian fishermen and 23 trawlers have been held this year. Resolving these requires engagement with Colombo in calmer times after the polls — when long-term diplomatic imperatives do not have to compete with short-term electoral compulsions.