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All you need to know about Katchatheevu island, ‘ceded’ by Congress to Sri Lanka
In June 1974, then-PM Indira Gandhi signed an agreement with Sri Lanka, ‘giving away’ Katchatheevu to the island nation.
Katchatheevu, an uninhabited island administered by Sri Lanka, became the subject of a political war of words in India on Sunday morning. Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, prime minister Narendra Modi, who is seeking a third consecutive term, criticised the erstwhile Congress government under then PM Indira Gandhi, of ‘giving away’ the island to Sri Lanka, in 1974.
Here is all you need to know about Katchatheevu island and the controversy that surrounds it:
(1.) According to an RTI dated January 5, 2015, Katchatheevu island lies on the Sri Lankan side of the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) between the neighbours.
(2.) In 1974, India ‘recognised’ Sri Lanka's ownership of the 285-acre (1.15-sq km) of the island under the ‘Agreement on the boundary in Historic Waters between the two countries and Related Matters.’ The agreement was signed in Colombo on June 26, 1974, and in New Delhi on June 28, 1974.
(3.) Katchatheevu houses the St. Anthony's shrine, the only structure on the island. Under the June 1974 agreement, Indian fishermen can attend the annual St. Anthony's festival; they can also come here for rest and for drying of nets.
(4.) The decision to ‘cede’ the island, however, has been a source of contention in Tamil Nadu as, despite the agreement, fishermen from the southern Indian state continue to face arrest by the Sri Lankan authorities.
(5.) As per Sri Lanka's foreign ministry, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, in 2014, disposed two petitions on the subject of Tamil Nadu fishermen's arrests. “These are matters in which the court cannot intervene. Can we ask the Sri Lankan Navy not to arrest Indian fishermen who stray into their waters? These are all political issues and you raise them in Parliament,” it quoted then CJI RM Lodha, who headed the bench, as saying.
