KATCHATHEEVU AND THE INDIAN TAMILS OF SRILANKA
The Congress Rulers never considered Tamils as Indians and Tamil Nadu a part of India. Ten Years earlier to the Indira Gandhi – Srimavo traitorous agreement of 1974, during the year 1964, Sastri the then Prime Minister of India Made a betrayal agreement with the same lady Srimavo Pandaranaike which made lakhs and lakhs of Indian Tamils of Srilanka Stateless. These Tamils were taken to Ceylon under the protective umbrella of British since 19th Century and they formed a bulk labour which turned the malaria infested forests of Srilanka in to a smiling plantations of tea which sustained the Srilankan economy up to modern times. Under the British Rule these Indian Tamils of Srilanka enjoyed the same legal status what the Singhalese and the Srilankan Tamils enjoyed. After Independence, the Srilankan Government declared that all the Srilankan Indian Tamils are stateless by passing an act by name The Ceylon Citizenship Act 1948.
Instead of warning the Srilankan Government to withdraw the above act, the Congress Government went on negotiating with Srilanka on this issue and finally Sastri accepted to get 5-25 lakhs of Srilankan Indian Tamils back to India out of 9.75 lakhs of Indian Tamils in Srilanka. It is to be noted that 90% of them did not want to return to India because they had been there in Srilanka Since 19th Century.
At that time Shir. C. Raja Gopalachari, once a Prominent leader of congress Party righty echoed the feelings of Tamils as follows. “Why should nearly a million of children and grand children born in Ceylon to parents who toiled and sweated for Ceylon and who had gone there from south India and settled down in the plantations be disentitled to be citizens of Ceylon? Why should a single child born in Ceylon and desiring to be in Ceylon and be a working citizen thereof be turned to wander as homeless refugees in India?”
As usual the congress Rulers ignored all objections and protests. Ultimately lakhs and lakhs joined families of Indian Tamils in Srilanka departed each family in to two or more and 60% of them were forced to return to India as refugees. Thereafter, the Srilankan Tamil refugees in India and their blood relations in Srilanka used to meet and recall their memories once in a year at Katchatheevu during the “Antoniar Festival” without Visa or any other travel documents. After Indira Gandhi gifted Katchatheevu to Srimavo for the reasons described in the previous chapters the Srilankan Government once for all locked the Antoniar Temple and stopped the Antoniar Festival Since 1978 and detained the Pilgrims to visit katchatheevu.
Thus the meeting opportunity of the Srilankan Tamil Refugees in India and the Indian Tamils in Srilanka once in a year at Katchatheevu was buried because of the ceding of Katchatheevu to Srilanka through the traitorous, betrayal and unpatriotic agreement made by Indira Gandhi during the year 1974.
What remarkable here is that Shri. K. Kamaraj the Then All India Congress party leader who made Sastri as Prime Minister after Nehru and Indira as the Prime Minister after Sastri is a Tamil.
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