For a short while, a 285-acre uninhabited island in the Palk Straits, located close to the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) of Sri Lanka and India, became a political tool for India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar. Apparently with his eye on the vote garnering potential of questioning the ...
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00:00For a short while, a 285-acre uninhabited island in the Park Straits, located close
00:15to the International Maritime Boundary Line of Sri Lanka and India, became a political
00:21tool for India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister S.J. Shankar, apparently
00:27with his eye on the vote-garnering potential of questioning the Kachatipu Islands' ownership
00:33that the people of Tamil Nadu often engage in, Modi said it was the Congress Party's
00:39government that had in quotes callously given it away to Sri Lanka in the 1970s. Dr. Jai
00:47Shankar went a step further, saying the ownership question was a live issue. It was diplomatically
00:54fraught assertion with serious implications for India's relations with Sri Lanka. However,
01:01and quite surprisingly so, Colombo chose to play down the Prime Minister's subtly upping
01:06the ante. In order to understand Sri Lanka's view, my Akshaya Report spoke to S. S. Senadhira,
01:14Media and International Affairs Advisor, to his country's Prime Minister, D. G. Gunavardhana.
01:22He spoke from Colombo.
01:24Welcome to my Akshaya Report, S. S. Senadhira. It's a great pleasure to have you.
01:29Wonderful to be here with you.
01:33Does Colombo see Prime Minister Narendra Modi's revival of the question of ownership of Kachatipu
01:41as election season grandstanding or something that might become his priority if he wins?
01:49No. I mean the first one, yes. It is merely for the election. Although he is very likely
01:59to get elected with a Thampi majority in the Hindi belt and elsewhere, but in the southern
02:05part of the country he doesn't have a foothold, especially in Tamil Nadu. So to get through
02:11Tamil vote he must have used this issue. Otherwise there is no other reason. There is perfect
02:16understanding between the two countries on all other issues and we don't see this as
02:22a major problem between the two countries.
02:29It's interesting you say that because while Modi, of course, is saying that India callously
02:34gave away the island, the Foreign Minister, External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar has
02:41called it a live issue. So which is a little more troublesome than Modi's rhetoric, don't you think?
02:51Well, Jaishankar's statement that it's a live issue doesn't make any sense. Of course,
02:58being a BJP politician, Foreign Secretary and current Foreign Minister, he has to follow the
03:08line taken by the Prime Minister at this juncture. Just on the eve of the Tamil Nadu elections he
03:14had to say this thing. But I doubt because he must be well aware because way back even his father,
03:23Dr Subramaniam, was initially involved in the discussions with Sri Lanka, with WT Jaya Singh,
03:29the then Foreign Secretary and so on. So I am sure he is well aware of the actual situation.
03:37This is not ceding an island to Sri Lanka. You see, it is merely a recognition that
03:46Kachathev lies on the Sri Lankan side of the maritime border. That's all.
03:51Yeah, I understand. But to focus a little bit more on what Dr Jaishankar has said,
03:58it's one thing for a deeply political Prime Minister to say things like this during an
04:03election season. But for a Foreign Minister to actively call it a live issue, I somehow think
04:11that it may not be as easy as Colombo might think it is. Well, I don't agree with you because
04:21we have not received any protest note or any request for revival of discussions on this issue,
04:35anything. Colombo has not been informed anything, only the source election platform speech followed
04:40by Subramaniam Jaya Shankar's press conference. So apart from that, there's no communication
04:49or official communication to Sri Lanka. So we don't go by press reports. We merely wait for
04:56if there's any. I doubt very much whether there will be anything.
05:00Otherwise, I don't think this issue will be raised during the remaining part of the election. Only
05:08the first phase was yesterday. So now the Tamil Nadu part of it is over. Now the voters
05:18have already decided the fate of Tamil Nadu, the 39 seats in the Lok Sabha. So with that,
05:27I strongly believe it will end there. Unless, you see, we try to trot on India's foot in some way,
05:35you know, antagonizing India or you remember way back in 1987, we faced certain issues. And
05:44that's also due to, I think, partly due to our decision to have closer links with the United
05:53States and setting up an East Bali intersection here. So unless something major, a problem
06:02arises elsewhere, I don't think India will raise this issue again.
06:07It's a very important point that you haven't received any official communication at all on
06:15this. And that's a significant perspective coming from you. I want to understand,
06:22but when it was first raised by the Prime Minister followed by Jaishankar around April 1st,
06:28was Colombo somewhat blindsided or you may have anticipated something like this?
06:34No, we didn't anticipate because for us it's a dead issue, you see.
06:41But however, the Foreign Minister Ali Sabri made a statement following
06:48Supreme Leader Jaishankar's statement. He said there's nothing to discuss, there's no seeding
06:54as far as we know. It was only the recognition of maritime boundary that Katchathev falls on
07:01this side. This is an issue which was decided even before the independence. Back in 1921,
07:12there was a discussion between the then Madras government and the Raja of Ramnath
07:23and Sri Lanka, Ceylon colonial authorities then and it was decided that Katchathev
07:32belongs to Sri Lankan side of the maritime boundary and Indian fishermen should not fish
07:40in that area. Although the Katchathev could be used for visiting the church or any religious
07:51functions or any other because even at that time there was no visa system between the two countries.
07:59We could go without visa or even without a passport to India. Similarly, Indians could
08:06travel not only to Katchathev, any part of Sri Lanka. So that was it. It was officially maritime
08:12boundaries decided in the two agreements in 1974 and 1976. You mentioned the 1920s,
08:21fast forward about 35 years or so when Prime Minister Nehru was in the saddle and he was
08:26also the foreign minister. In fact, he was on record saying that it's not a matter of national
08:32prestige, this island. So it was clear from the 50s onward, even if you consider
08:39India as an independent country, it was clear from the 1950s that this was not a major problem
08:46and then as you pointed out in 74 there was an agreement and it was extended in 76. So
08:55for all practical purposes this was just a little blip in other words in even key relations between
09:00India and Sri Lanka, you think? This was traced from time and again. Although 1921
09:10Maharaja of Ramnath's agreement, subsequently the Jaffna diocese was conducting all the religious
09:19ceremonies at the St. Anthony's Church set up in Katchathev Island. Katchathev, as you know,
09:28there are no inhabitants there. Only the church is there. Annually there's a function there for
09:36that. Christians from both sides come. However, there were protests from Sri Lankan or then Ceylon
09:49fishermen throughout that Indians are using the very rich, fish rich area around Katchathev which
09:58is our territory because 1921 agreement says seven and a half miles, not even kilometers,
10:06seven and a half miles west of Katchathev is the Sri Lankan maritime boundary, then Ceylon.
10:16So in 1974 agreement it was reduced to 2.3 kilometers. It was reduced on mutual understanding.
10:27Furthermore, there's another area very rich in fish were handed over to Indian fishermen
10:37in the same maritime agreement which is north of Katchathev, the huge area of
10:48Sri Lankans were using those areas and now Sri Lankan fishermen don't travel to those areas
10:54because mutually they understand. But however, Indian fishermen continue to come to the Sri
11:03Lankan side of the maritime boundary because Sri Lankan fishermen stopped fishing in those areas
11:10for 30 odd years due to the conflict. So that was the reason why the Indians continue to use those
11:18area for fishing. Does Colombo see this 280 odd acre rock of any strategic value?
11:28No, not at all. There's no strategic value at all and we don't allow not only that
11:42island, there are seven other much bigger islands in the north, the Kites, Nagadeep,
11:50Nainathevu and those islands, all of them are inhabited. We will not allow any of those
12:01islands or any territory in Sri Lanka to be used against a third country by any country,
12:08so especially against India. So there's no question of using Katchathevu as a
12:17strategically important island. Right, right. To change gears a bit,
12:23how do you look at the Sri Lankan relations? We did talk about they are quite robust.
12:28There are no major issues, I suppose, outstanding. Is that an accurate assessment of the reality on
12:36the ground? Yes, there are no issues whatsoever. We have a perfect understanding though there are
12:45some concerns expressed by India as you are well aware, you see, recently about allowing
12:54Chinese research ship to come here but we understood India's situation and we decided
13:02to have a two-year moratorium for any research vessel to come to Sri Lankan ports. So whenever
13:11there are some concerns, of course, we look into it and India, of course, our age-old friend,
13:18the immediate neighbour and whenever we have problems, they come to assist us. As you have
13:24seen in the last three years during Covid time followed by Sri Lanka's economic crisis,
13:30India was the first country to offer debt restructuring. So there's perfect understanding.
13:38To wrap up our conversation, in terms of the relations between at the summit level,
13:46the two prime ministers, how would you describe it? Oh, that's extremely close because
13:54it's a family connection to start with. Dinesh Gunawardena's father, Philip Gunawardena
14:00was a signatory to 1929 Paris Declaration of Socialist Youth. The other signatories included
14:14Nehru's emissary, Krishnamenon was there. Then Chou En-lai was there in Paris as a youth leader.
14:23Ho Chi Minh was there. The Colombian leaders, Mexican revolution leaders, all of them signed
14:29this Paris Declaration. So the relationship goes back that far. Then 1940s, the moment
14:37the world war started, the socialist youths in Sri Lanka, Philip, Dr N M Perra, Colina de Silla and
14:47all the socialist launch a protest movement and immediately they were arrested and kept in jail.
14:53And they escaped from the jail in 1942 and went to India and joined the Indian freedom
15:00struggle. Philip Gunawardena, the prime minister's father, used his pseudonym as
15:07Dr Gopalasamy and addressed rallies in Mumbai as an Indian against the British.
15:16So all of them were arrested again in India and jailed. And Kusuma Gunawardena, Philip's wife,
15:24another revolutionary, the women's lead of the socialist movement of Sri Lanka.
15:28So both of them were in jail. And Prime Minister Dinesh's elder brother was born in the, he was
15:36named as Indica because he was born in the Mumbai jail. I see. I see. Interesting.
15:43It is indeed, indeed.