Yashwant Sinha concerned over Katchatheevu politics

India’s former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha said the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) has made the Katchatheevu island an election issue ahead of the Lok Sabha polls without considering its implications for India-Sri Lanka relations.

The decades-old territorial and fishing rights dispute around the Katchatheevu island is in the limelight again, with the BJP and the opposition parties engaged in a war of words.

Sinha, who had served as India’s finance and external affairs minister, said the island falls on the Sri Lankan side of the maritime boundary.

“I am extremely dismayed that no other than the country’s prime minister has raised this issue. I am aware that Katchatheevu was an island that, when the international maritime line was drawn, fell on the side of Sri Lanka and, therefore, went to Sri Lanka.

“And that is why the Ministry of External Affairs has repeatedly held the position that there was no question of conceding any territory to Sri Lanka because the island fell on the Sri Lankan side,” Sinha said.

“Therefore, to raise this issue now will spoil the relationship with Sri Lanka. And what will you do? Are you going to use force to take the island back? So this is nothing but an election issue,” he said.