Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi successfully completed his two-day Lankan visit and took off from historically an important Lankan city Anuradhapura to another historically and spiritually significant South Indian city Rameswaram on Sunday (6). In Anuradhapura Indian Prime Minister worshipped at the Jayasiri Mahabodhi Buddhist shrine where the branch of the Bo tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment.

One of the four MI- 24 helicopters of the Indian Air Force which had arrived from India for the transportation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had flown the Indian Prime Minister from the Sri Lanka Air Force base in Anuradhapura to Rameswaram. It was soon after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in India, Tamil Nadu State Minister M.K. Stalin had come hard on Prime Minister grumbling that the Indian leader didn’t speak about the problems faced by Indian fisher folk in International Maritime Border Line (IMBL) between Sri Lanka and India in the Northern waters of the Island.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian government of neglecting the longstanding demands of the state’s fishermen. In a statement made in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, Stalin said, “Tamil Nadu’s demand for retrieving Katchatheevu has been ignored. It does not appear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who went to Sri Lanka, raised the fishermen’s release, too. This is regrettable and disappointing.”

Tamil Nadu government passed a resolution in the Assembly on April 2, urging the Centre to find a permanent solution to prevent the continuous arrests of Tamil Nadu fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy. The resolution called for the retrieval of Katchatheevu island, the release of fishermen from Sri Lankan prisons, and the return of their seized boats. The resolution also pressed the Prime Minister to raise these issues directly with the Sri Lankan government during his visit, as a demonstration of goodwill and to safeguard the traditional fishing rights of Tamil Nadu fishermen.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s statement on Prime Minister Narendra Modi has clearly highlighted the bankruptcy in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s politics in his state. Therefore to divert his people’s attention he had come hard on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As far as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lankan visit is concerned he had mentioned about the issues mainly on the regional security between the two countries as well as on finding a durable solution to the Tamil issue in the Island through the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

Of course the Tamil Nadu fishermen’s issue is an important matter. Chief Minister M K Stalin as head of his State has hardly done anything to protect his fishermen from entering into the territorial waters of Northern part of Sri Lanka. India is a regional superpower it has the Coast Guard patrol in addition to its Navy. So Stalin could very well get the services of those guardians of the Indian territorial waters to ensure that his state’s fishermen are not infiltrating the territorial waters of Sri Lanka.

Since Rameswaram remains as part of Tamil Nadu State instead of getting into action to prevent his fishermen entering Lankan waters, Chief Minister Stalin has politicized the Tamil Nadu fishermen’s issue for his political gains. He has even boycotted the event Prime Minister Narendra Modi had participated to commission the new Pampban bridge which connects Tamil Nadu mainland with Rameswaram Island. It is important to remember that his late father Chief Minister M Karunanithy had even staged a fast unto death during the last lap of the North and East civil war in Kilinochchi.

The token fasting by late Karunanithi even came under criticism and the opposition parties in Tamil Nadu described it as self-centered and an eye wash. So right from the beginning of the North and East struggle Tamil Nadu Government had been adopting a double standard. Therefore the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister even following the footsteps of his predecessors had criticised Prime Minister Modi for not taking up the Indian fishermen issue in Sri Lanka.

Chief Minister Stalin had even boycotted the state of the art newly built Pamban bridge which was commissioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his return from Sri Lanka. In the meantime Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is a great lover of Tamil language often quote Thirukural wherever he spoke in India. Modi has great admiration for Tamil language and he even criticized for not sending the letters to him from Tamil Nadu in Tamil and only sending them in English. In his recent speech Narendra Modi has told the Tamil Nadu politicians to communicate with him in Tamil from the State.

By making this statement Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unmasked the fake attitudes of the Tamil Nadu politicians who were even trying to politically manipulate his visit to Sri Lanka.