Modi’s claim on Sri Lankan island may be more than Indian election talk

Worryingly, India’s external affairs minister S. Jaishankar backed Modi’s assertion at a press conference and spoke of finding a “solution”. Jaishankar’s statements raise the possibility that India could formally assert a claim over the island and that Indian fishermen will demand a return of fishing rights in the waters around it.

Indian governments, including the incumbent, have consistently stated over the years that the Katchacheevu island lay on Sri Lanka’s side of the maritime border.

Former Indian diplomats who served as high commissioners to Colombo, such as Shivshankar Menon (1997-2000) and Nirupama Menon-Rao (2004-2006), have cautioned against revisiting the agreement related to the island made by the Indian and Sri Lankan governments in 1974, saying that such a move would affect New Delhi’s credibility.

Opposition politicians from the Congress party, news analysts and former Indian diplomats link the government’s current narrative with the Tamil Nadu election on April 19. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears to want to win votes by accusing the Congress-affiliated ruling party in Tamil Nadu of failures and by taking up the issue of Tamil Nadu’s fishermen’s rights in the Katchatheevu waters.

Sri Lanka’s fishermen accuse their counterparts from India of using big trawlers around the island’s waters and capturing huge volumes of fish, affecting their source of subsistence. Besides, a previous Indian minister of state for external affairs had said the arrests of Indian fishermen were not directly linked to Katchatheevu. Now, instead of restraining its fishermen, India appears to be signalling the possibility of a renegotiation of the 1974 agreement.

Analysts on both sides have dismissed Delhi’s latest