The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution urging the Centre to retrieve the Katchatheevu island from Sri Lanka.

Katchatheevu is a small uninhabited island in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. Both countries have staked claim on it since at least 1921.

“The tears shed by Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu, and the anguish they have endured over the years, cannot be captured in words,” Chief Minister MK Stalin said in a post on X. “The sea, their source of livelihood, has become a place of fear and uncertainty due to repeated attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy.”

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader said the resolution was passed “to safeguard our historical rights, livelihoods, and access to traditional fishing grounds”.

The resolution held that the island’s retrieval “is the only permanent solution to protect the traditional fishing rights of Tamil Nadu fishermen and to mitigate the sufferings faced by them due to the Sri Lankan Navy,” The Hindu reported.

Stalin also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka this week, to seek the release of Indian fishermen who have been detained by Colombo.

Modi is expected to visit Sri Lanka from April 4 to 6, at the invitation of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

In 1974, India and Sri Lanka signed an agreement demarcating their maritime boundary, which effectively placed the island in Sri Lankan territorial waters.

However, the dispute has continued to find traction in the politics of Tamil Nadu, especially because it is intertwined with the attacks on and detention of fisherfolk from the state by the Sri Lankan Navy. In recent years, the island has also become a significant political issue in India.

Reacting to the resolution, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Tamil Nadu chief K Annamalai on Wednesday criticised Stalin for creating “a new drama every day” despite the state’s law and order being in “shambles”.

He alleged that the DMK was only raking up the issue for political mileage.

In April 2024, before the Lok Sabha election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of “callously” giving away the island to Sri Lanka. He was referring to a report in The Times of India that cited documents obtained by Annamalai under the Right to Information Act to suggest that Indira Gandhi, who was the prime minister in 1974, had handed over Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka.

A day later, the prime minister alleged that “new details” about the matter had “unmasked” the DMK’s “double standards”.

Following this, Sri Lanka said there was no need to revisit the matter, which was settled 50 years earlier.

“They [India] are having an internal political debate about who is responsible,” Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry had said. “Other than that, no one is talking about claiming Katchatheevu.”

Also read: Explained: The Katchatheevu dispute with Sri Lanka that Modi is raking up this election season