Colombo: Devotees from Tamil Nadu who recently participated in the Katchatheevu Anthony Church festival held at the Katchatheevu island, which is disputed between India and Sri Lanka, have accused the Lankan authorities of inappropriate arrangements during the festival. The annual festival was held on Mar. 3 and 4 for which the Indian government had provided Rs 4 crore.
The arrangements for the festival were coordinated by the Sri Lankan Navy. However the Indian devotees, who were mostly from Tamil Nadu complained of hardships during the two-day festival. The devotees said that basic amenities including drinking water and food were not provided properly which caused a huge inconvenience to them.
The devotees from Tamil Nadu in particular complained that only one naval officer was appointed by the Sri Lankan authorities to register a total of 2,281 devotees from India due to which they had to wait for 4 hours in the hot beach. Charles Nirmalanathan, a Tamil National Federation MP raised the issue in the Sri Lankan Parliament.
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Nirmalanathan said that India's cooperation in recovering from the economic recovery cannot be denied or hidden. He said that while the Government of India had given Rs 4 crore for the Katchatheevu festival, “the way Indian citizens were treated was reprehensible”. The Katchatheevu, which was handed over by the Indian government to the Sri Lankan government as part of the 1974-76 maritime agreements has been in news recently over the installation of Buddha statue besides the already installed St. Anthony Church there leading to communal tensions.
The church has become a symbol of the island over the years. The island, which was earlier used by Sri Lankan and Tamil Nadu fishermen to dry their nets, has now become a base for the operation of a small camp of the Sri Lankan Navy. Nirmalanathan questioned how the Buddha statue came to be secretly installed on the island.
Alleging that Buddhist symbols were being “imposed in areas inhabited by Hindu Tamils in the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka”, Charles said that “this action shows that Katchatheevu has not been spared”.
