Demand to claim Katchatheevu is ridiculous
Thursday, 28th August 2014
Politicians from Tamil Nadu must stop pestering the Union Government with unreasonable demands that relate to Sri Lanka, in their desire to pander to sectarian sentiments. Some of these demands are fit to be dismissed with contempt. Among them is a call to the Government to ‘retrieve' the Katchatheevu Island from Sri Lanka. The sorry part is that the campaign for this silly contention should be coming not from fringe elements in the State but tall leaders such as Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi. The demand would have been laughable but for the fact that the matter even reached the Supreme Court. The court has thankfully disposed of the matter saying that it could not issue directives. Representatives of both the DMK and the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu were part of the matter before the Bench. The two political parties have been alleging that Tamil Nadu fishermen who inadvertently strayed into the island have been held captive and ill-treated. If this is so, then the Government of India must engage with its Sri Lankan counterpart to secure their release at the earliest and ensure that, in the meantime, they are looked after appropriately. Tamil Nadu's leaders can maintain pressure on the Centre to ensure that it is proactive towards this end. Indeed, the apex court too suggested that the Union Government must heed such concerns. But this is no reason to demand the secession of the island from Sri Lanka. It is not as if Katchatheevu is any longer ‘disputed' territory — as we understand the term, with India laying claim to the island. Through an agreement in 1974, both sides accepted the full sovereignty of Sri Lanka on the piece of water-locked land, and that had closed the matter. The dispute, if any, had been between then Ceylon and British India. The island did not belong to independent India nor had it ceded in a controversial manner to the Lankans. Tamil Nadu politicians are now trying to flog a dead issue in a bid to create distrust between New Delhi and Colombo at a time when relations between the two countries are promising to look up after a phase of considerable turmoil. It was a deep sense of frustration over the meaningless raking up of a non-existent dispute that must have led Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi to remark before the Supreme Court that India would have to “go to war” with Sri Lanka if it wanted to establish its supremacy over the island. Needless to add, this was rhetoric to expose the unreasonableness of the demand, and not a suggested action plan.
During the Congress-led UPA Government's rule, the DMK, which was a part of the alliance, had continuously pressured the Centre to adopt positions that dismayed and even angered Colombo. New Delhi had voted in favour of a resolution against Sri Lanka in the UN human rights body. The Manmohan Singh regime capitulated under pressure on more than one occasion. However, with Mr Narendra Modi coming to power, hopes of a return to the earlier friendship the two countries enjoyed, have gained ground. President Mahinda Rajapaksa's presence at Mr Modi's oath-taking ceremony in New Delhi signalled a new start, and non-issues like ‘claiming’ the Katchatheevu Island should not be allowed to derail the process.
From : http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/edit/flogging-a-non-issue.html
