Katchatheevu island | Sirima’s call to Indira Gandhi saved negotiations from getting derailed, according to 2003 Sri Lankan book

A telephone call from Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Sirima R.D. Bandaranaike to her Indian counterpart Indira Gandhi in January 1974 may perhaps be considered to have saved the bilateral negotiations on the contentious Katchatheevu islet issue from getting derailed

A telephone call from Sri Lanka’s then Prime Minister Sirima R.D. Bandaranaike to her Indian counterpart Indira Gandhi in January 1974 may perhaps be considered to have saved the bilateral negotiations on the contentious Katchatheevu islet issue from getting derailed.

The issue has acquired prominence in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls with Prime Minister Narendra Modi blaming the Congress on March 31 for the “ceding” of the islet to Sri Lanka. 

Also read: Katchatheevu | What is the controversy all about?

Recounting how the negotiations went over the years, W.T. Jayasinghe, who was the Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka during 1972-89, in his book “Kachchativu: And the Maritime Boundary of Sri Lanka” (published by Stamford Lake, Sri Lanka, 2003), mentioned that when Bandaranaike arrived in New Delhi on January 22 for “summit and official” level discussions, Sri Lanka’s sovereignty over Katchatheevu was “no longer an issue.” The neighbour’s case had been “established through discussion, documentation and correspondence.” What was required to be thrashed out was the apportioning of the historic waters in the Palk Strait and Palk Bay, especially the extent of territorial sea on the west of the islet. 

The visiting Prime Minister was in India till January 30. She was one of the guests of honour at the Republic Day celebrations on January 26 along with the now-disintegrated Yugoslavia’s President Josip Tito. Though Bandaranaike and Indira Gandhi had several meetings, exchanging views on several international developments, their one-to-one talks “however, centred round” Katchatheevu and the status of 1.5 lakh persons of Indian origin who had remained stateless. 

As regards the stateless people, an understanding was reached between the two leaders to absorb them in equal numbers and letters were exchanged between them on January 27. 

But, Katchatheevu did not prove to be that swift matter. The 1921 fishery line, which was drawn up when the British ruled both India and Sri Lanka, had provided for, in the words of India’s then External Affairs Minister Swaran Singh, “about three or three and a half miles” west of Katchatheevu. It was in 1921 that the issue of ownership over the islet had also cropped up.