Lok Sabha Polls ’24 | Will Katchatheevu resurgence in the campaign help BJP in Tamil Nadu

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

With Tamil Nadu going to the polls in the first phase of the General Elections and the BJP determined to make a mark in the Southern State, many issues that have been on the backburner were rekindled. One such issue was that of the tiny island of Katchatheevu in the Palk Strait.

Situated close to the coast of Rameswaram, Katchatheevu is a mostly uninhabited small island of less than 300 acres. It houses a Church where fishermen from both the Sri Lankan and the Indian side visit once a year for a festival, and a few fishing hamlets. 

 At the time of drawing up the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) in 1974 both India and Sri Lanka agreed that Katchatheevu would be on the Sri Lankan side of the IMBL and in return India would get Wadge Bank, a fish rich area off the coast of Kanyakumari. For a couple of years India retained fishing rights on the island but this was ceded under a separate Agreement in 1976. 

Katchatheevu for centuries, belonged to the Raja of Ramnad’s  principality. However as the Raja of Ramnad was more of a zamindar than a prince the exact status of Katchatheevu as an integral part of Independent India is disputed. In fact, the then Government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi used this as the  reason for not getting the approval of Parliament for the deal.

During the Tamil Eelam war, Katchatheevu was an emotive issue in Tamil Nadu as fishermen from the Rameswaram area were being shot by the Sri Lankan Navy on the suspicion they were LTTE cadre. However, the issue lost its relevance after the war ended in 2009.

Why the Resurgence 

Here’s is a look at the BJP’s move to rekindle Katchatheevu as a discussion in this Lok Sabha election, and has it really helped the party in its election campaign in Tamil Nadu. 

This election season, the BJP has worked extremely hard to make a significant entry into Tamil Nadu. Prime Minister Modi has visited the State almost a dozen times this year. Yet the campaign largely focusing on restoring the cultural identify of the Tamil people has not really struck a chord. Katchatheevu being raised was one such issue that hardly evoked any response on the ground. Indeed the noise about it on National media was much more than any in the State itself.

BJP leaders who raised Kathatheevu issue as a betrayal by the Congress and DMK also did not spell out what they now proposed to do about the same. Embarrassingly for them an earlier statement by the central Government saying that in the redrawing of the IMBL no sovereign territory had been ceded by India, exposed the political hypocrisy of raising the issue on the eve of the polls. 

Further, the BJP manifesto also does not speak about reclaiming Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka — a near impossibility in any case without seriously rupturing relations with our neighbour. This also seemed to imply that the issue of saying that the Congress and the DMK had allegedly surrendered India’s “territory” was nothing more than scoring a political point.  

What Are the Real Issues

Among the fishermen of the Ramanathapuram District there is little expectation that the island would be reclaimed. Many believe that the island’s possession has little to do with the matter of their fellow fishermen being apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy. Many experts point out that the fishermen venture far beyond Katchatheevu and well into Sri Lankan waters and often being arrested by Sri Lankan Navy is where the fishermen folk actually facing an issue. The local community actually want a solution to this problem and that does not appear to involve Katchatheevu at all. 

While the Katchtheevu issue was the latest addition to its campaign, the BJP has been trying to create a cultural platform to woo the Tamil Nadu voter by highlighting things like its recognition of Tamil Nadu’s “Sengol” being installed in the New Parliament building, and the Kashi Tamil Sangam, the mention of the Tamil language in their manifesto etc.

However the demand for bread and butter issues like flood relief for the battered Southern districts of Tamil Nadu, large infrastructure projects for the State and construction of the long delayed AIIMS at Madurai (which began only a few weeks ago after the foundation stone was laid by the PM in 2019) have been largely ignored by the party, much to the political benefit of its opponents in the State. 

Therefore, by sidelining the issues that really matter and focusing on the emotive appeal of cultural symbolism, the BJP may have wasted a golden opportunity to grab a major foothold in the State. Anyway, on June 4, the answer will be revealed.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow