Katchatheevu Row: How an Indian Island Went to Sri Lanka | Timeline of Events

New Delhi: A new controvery in the name of Katchatheevu island has heated the general election season in India with Congress and DMK on target of the ruling BJP. Engulfed in the womb of blackness, Katchatheevu has found ways to bounce back to attention with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent mention about it during a public rally.  

PM Modi on Sunday lambasted the Congress over its decision to hand over the strategic Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka in the 1970s, accusing the party of "weakening" the country's integrity and interests.

PM Modi's scathing attack on Congress came after a Right To Information (RTI) report revealed how the Congress government led by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi handed over Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka in 1974.

Being a product of the volcanic eruptions in the 14th Century, Katchatheevu is an uninhabited off-shore island in the Palk Strait. The 285-acre land was jointly administered by India and Sri Lanka during British rule.

Katchatheevu Row: Timeline of Events

1600s: The island was controlled by the Jaffna kingdom of Sri Lanka in the early medieval period. During the 17th Century, the control over the island was passed to the Ramnad Zamindari based out of Ramanathapuram, near Rameswaram. 

1921: The Raja enjoyed rights in Katchatheevu from till 1948 which later got vested in the State of Madras after the abolition of the Zamindari system. But both the British colonies- India and Sri Lanka, claimed ownership over Katchatheevu in order to draw fishing boundaries. This dispute was not settled until 1974.

1961: In a letter dated May 10, 1961, the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru dismissed the issue stating it as 'inconsequential.' “I attach no importance to all to this little island and I would have no hesitation in giving up our claims to it, ” he wrote, according to reports. 

1968: Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, faced Opposition's ire who targeted her government for speaking with the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake who showed the island in their territory on the maps. The opposition claimed a negotiation deal has been signed between both the countries.  

1973: Foreign secretary-level talks were held in Colombo on the island issue. 

1974: The decision to relinquish India’s claim was conveyed to then Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi in June by foreign secretary Kewal Singh. The foreign secretary stressed that Sri Lanka had taken a “very strong determined position” on the basis of “records” showing the island was part of the kingdom of Jaffnapatnam, Dutch and British maps. The Indian government handed over the island to Sri Lanka in an act of bilateral largesse during the same year.

1976: In another agreement during the period of Emergency in India, barred either country from fishing in the other’s Exclusive Economic Zone. 

1991: The issue echoed in the Tamil Nadu Assembly with leaders demanding retrieval of Katchatheevu and restoration of fishing rights of Tamil fishermen. 

2008: Then AIADMK supremo, the late J Jayalalitha, filed a petition in court saying Katchatheevu could not be ceded to another country without a constitutional amendment. 

2011: After holding Chief Minister's office, Jayalalitha moved a resolution in the State Assembly for bringing back the island to India. 

2012: She went to the Supreme Court asking her petition be expedited in the wake of increasing arrests of Indian fishermen by Sri Lanka.

The turn of events unfolded only after  Indira Gandhi made attempts to settle the maritime border between India and Sri Lanka, once and for all in 1974. As a part of this settlement, known as the ‘Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime agreement’, Indira Gandhi ‘ceded’ Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka. It was beleived by the then government that the island had little strategic value and that ceasing India’s claim over the island would deepen its ties with its southern neighbour.