Sri Lankan media hit out at Modi’s Katchatheevu remarks

The Sri Lankan govt is yet to comment on the recent remarks on Katchatheevu, but the island nation’s media took a critical view of the development, while fishermen’s associations urged authorities to take up the issue of bottom trawling more vocally with the Indian govt.

The Sri Lankan government is yet to comment on the recent remarks by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Katchatheevu, but the island nation’s media took a critical view of the development, while fishermen’s associations urged Sri Lankan authorities to take up the issue of bottom trawling more vocally with the Indian government.

The Colombo-based English newspaper Daily Mirror, in its editorial on Tuesday, noted: “Sadly, even the seemingly unflappable Indian External Affairs Minister - Jaishankar - has dropped all pretence of statesmanship and has joined hands with his premier to rouse communal feelings in the hope of gaining a few votes in Tamil Nadu.” “Lanka desires to be left to its own devices away from India’s internal politics,” it said.

The editorial was responding to Mr. Modi’s claim — and Dr. Jaishankar’s subsequent media statement which sought to back it — that the Congress party “callously gave away” Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka. In its editorial titled ‘Katchatheevu was not India’s to ‘give away’’, business newspaper Daily Financial Times termed their remarks “a distortion of the facts, a dog whistle to South Indian nationalism and a dangerous and unnecessary provocation of a friendly neighbour that could have serious repercussions”.

“The constant provocative claims on Sri Lankan territory, especially from the highest echelons of power in India, would only force our country to seek security guarantees elsewhere. Having learnt the art of diplomacy from Ashoka and strategy from Kautilya, it would be tragic for all concerned if Sri Lanka needs to apply the foreign policy theory of Rajamandala to find ‘friends’ elsewhere to protect itself against a ‘near foe’,” the newspaper’s editorial observed.

Meanwhile, the Indian leaders’ reference to Katchatheevu in the context of frequent arrests of Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters has also drawn attention among those familiar with the complex and long-persisting fisheries conflict in the Palk Strait.

Both, regional and national parties in India have often conflated the fisheries conflict and the ceding of Katchatheevu, located almost equidistant from the coasts of northern Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. Politicians have suggested that had Katchatheevu remained in India’s territory, the fishermen from Tamil Nadu would not face arrest by Sri Lankan authorities.

Leaders of fishermen’s groups in northern Sri Lanka said linking the two issues was “insincere”. Further, it distorts the persisting problem of Indian boats fishing along Sri Lanka’s coastline, using the destructive bottom trawling method that scoops out all marine organisms. The practice severely affected the livelihoods of northern Sri Lankan fisher folk, who are struggling to recover from the civil war.