'Review Indo-Lanka agreement and retrieve Katchatheevu': Tamil Nadu urges Centre as state Assembly passes resolution over islet

Chennai: Two days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarks on an official visit to Sri Lanka, the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution demanding that the Union Government review the 1974 Indo-Sri Lanka agreement and take steps to retrieve the tiny uninhabited island of Katchatheevu.

Moving the resolution, which was supported by all political parties including the BJP, Chief Minister M K Stalin regretted that attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen in the Palk Bay by Sri Lankan Navy continues unabated despite a regime change in the neighbouring country and accused the Centre of forgetting that the fisherfolk are from India.

Stalin, whose party DMK is accused of remaining silent when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi decided to “gift” Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka, also utilised the opportunity to take a dig at the BJP saying Modi had during the 2014 election campaign gave an assurance that his government will stop the attack on fishermen from Tamil Nadu.

The resolution was passed ahead of Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka during which he is expected to discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including the attack on fishermen. Stalin said the only solution to put an end to the recurring problems faced by the fisherfolk was to restore their traditional rights to fish around Katchatheevu by retrieving the island.

“Retrieval of Katchatheevu island is the only permanent solution to protect the traditional fishing rights of Tamil Nadu fishermen and to mitigate the sufferings faced by them due to the Sri Lankan Navy,” the resolution said, nudging Modi to hold talks with the island nation’s government.

Stalin also refuted reports that his father Karunanidhi never opposed ceding of Katchatheevu by dwelling into how the then DMK government passed a resolution in the Assembly against Indira Gandhi’s decision.

“The DMK government has been making several attempts to reclaim Katchatheevu and uphold the traditional fishing rights of Indian fishermen. We have been consistent in our stand,” Stalin said and added that resolutions have been passed in the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 1991 and 2013 demanding the retrieval of the island.

The Chief Minister said about 530 fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy in 2024 alone and termed as a matter of great concern the way Indian fishermen are treated by the Navy in the neighbouring country. He also said it was saddening that the BJP government couldn’t find a solution to the problem despite getting elected for a third successive term.

“The Tamil Nadu Assembly wishes that the Prime Minister indulges in meaningful conversation with Sri Lankan authorities during his visit to the neighbouring country on the attack on fishermen, who are also levied hefty fines and their boats impounded,” he said.

In his reaction, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai accused the DMK of “indulging in corruption” when over 80 Tamil fishermen were killed by the Sri Lankan Navy between 2004 and 2014.

“After surrendering Katchatheevu and remaining silent for fifty years, having jeopardised the livelihood of Tamil Nadu’s fishermen, neither M K Stalin nor the DMK Congress alliance will be trusted by the people of TN when they suddenly act concerned about reclaiming Katchatheevu,” he added.

About 3,656 fishermen from Tamil Nadu, especially Ramanathapuram, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, and Pudukkottai were arrested and 611 mechanized boats seized by the Sri Lankan Navy in the past 11 years after Modi assumed office as Prime Minister in May 2014.

Katchatheevu, said to be owned by the Rajah of Ramanathapuram, was ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and an agreement in 1976 declared the island as a ‘No Go Zone’ for Indians, leading to a battle for fish between Tamil fishermen from India and Sri Lanka – who had always flaunted the “umbilical cord” connection between them as they speak the same language and share civilizational and cultural links.

The arrest of Indian fishermen from Pudukkottai, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, and Ramanathapuram districts in Tamil Nadu and Karaikal by the Sri Lankan Navy has been a recurring affair in the Palk Strait for the past few decades.