Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader and Member of Parliament Rauff Hakeem said in Chennai on Friday that the sovereignty of Katchatheevu is a settled matter under international law and bilateral agreements, rejecting any suggestion that Sri Lanka should hand the islet back to India to defuse the long-running Tamil Nadu fishermen dispute.
“Prioritising the Katchatheevu issue as an immediate fix the moment a conflict arises is not a wise strategy,” Hakeem told reporters during his goodwill visit to Tamil Nadu. Any re-examination of the islet’s status would have to go through the United Nations, he said, because neither India nor Sri Lanka can unilaterally alter an established international maritime boundary line.
“The Indian government had accepted Sri Lanka’s sovereignty over Katchatheevu based on international legal frameworks,” Hakeem said. “To change this outside of international law, one would have to resort to a military invasion to capture it, which we know the Indian central government will never do.”
Hakeem noted that Indian citizens face no restrictions when visiting Katchatheevu for pilgrimage at St Antony’s Church, and that the Sri Lankan Navy and local fishermen routinely welcome and facilitate Indian visitors. “The problem escalates into a massive crisis only when there is an encroachment of borders for illegal fishing activities.”
On the wider arrests of Tamil Nadu fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy, Hakeem framed the issue as a humanitarian and livelihood crisis rather than a purely legal one and called for a joint cooperative society combining fishermen of both nations. He urged the Indian government to extend financial subsidies to help Tamil Nadu fishermen transition from coastal craft to deep-sea fishing vessels, and underscored that the use of banned fishing gear and destructive methods remains a core enforcement concern in Sri Lanka.
The SLMC leader also confirmed that a joint delegation representing all Tamil-speaking parliamentary parties from Sri Lanka would travel to Chennai to collectively meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Joseph Vijay. “We have decided against meeting Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay individually,” he said, framing the planned visit as a coordinated minority-party effort rather than a series of bilateral meetings. The clarification follows Hakeem’s own meeting with Tamil Nadu Public Works and Sports Minister Adhav Arjuna in Chennai and Fisheries Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekar’s earlier bilateral talks with the TVK administration on bottom-trawling.
Source: Ada Derana (via The New Indian Express / Agencies).
