Will Vijay too, shield behind Kachchativu in times of difficulty?

Some of those small parties are extreme Tamil nationalist, while some  are pan-Indian

Capturing power at an election two years after forming a political party is no doubt an incredible achievement even by a highly popular film star. However, Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar popularly known as Thalapathy (Commander) Vijay,  who was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on Sunday after securing support from several small parties, now   enjoys an  absolute majority in the State Assembly; but he seems to be heading towards a political muddle.
Troubles await him in view of the conflicting policies of those parties which have agreed to support him at floor tests at the assembly after much haggling. Some of those small parties are extreme Tamil nationalist, while some  are pan-Indian, Some are racist while some others are communist.  Also, his election pledges were extremely populist that one cannot even imagine filfilling them for a long time. 
Free electricity for all up to 200 units, free travelling rights for women in buses throughout the state, free LPG cylinders (six per year) for every family, zero drug-tolerance and corruption free administration were his promises, among many others. However, he, to some extent, disappointed the electorate by alleging immediately after the swearing in ceremony that the previous regime of M.K Stalin had left the government treasury empty.   Rejecting Vijay’s claim, Stalin said the new Chief Minister had only just entered administration and would now learn the challenges involved in fulfilling promises.   
A possibility, though not an immediate one, is that Vijay would raise the extreme nationalist flag when he finds it difficult to keep his populist promises in the long run. As his predecessors did, he also might use the fisheries issue between India and Sri Lanka,  and the Kachchtivu issue,  to obscure real economic issues. 
It has been a habit of former chief ministers Muthuvel Karunanidhi of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Jayalalithaa Jayaram of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) to occasionally write letters to successive prime ministers of India demanding steps to ensure Indian fishermen’s fishing right in the seas between India and Sri Lanka. Stalin, the immediate past chief minister and  Vijay’s predecessor,  had also stated last year that he raised the fishermen issue with Indian PM on eleven occasions, and made seventy-two representations to the External Affairs Minister.  
Vijay too, not as a leader of the Tamil Nadu government but as a leader of a political party that was fast approaching the winning post,  took up this issue last year and requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take measures to reacquire Kachchativu island that was ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974 during the administration of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake,  as if responding to his remarks,  paid a visit to the island in question few days later.
The fishermens’ row between India and Sri Lanka is a long drawn problem that could be traced back to the newspapers published in 1960s. Yet, it grew into a vexed question after the armed conflicts broke out between  Sri Lankan armed forces and  Tamil separatist groups, especially the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the latter years. 
Despite the root cause of the problem being poaching by  Indian fishermen in  Sri Lankan waters, ironically it has been portrayed erroneously by  Tamil Nadu leaders and the fishermens’ organisation of that state; they now lay claim to a traditional right of Indian fishermen. Once,  in 2015, the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe,  during a visit to New Delhi,  issued a veiled threat to shoot  Indian fishermen who trespass into  Sri Lankan waters. 
After the end of the separatist war,   this fishing issue became a political irritant between the two countries, ritualistically featured in every visit by Indian leaders to Sri Lanka and vice versa, but without any follow-up action. The underlying cause of the problem not being solved is that Sri Lanka does not want to antagonise India, the regional giant, in this regard,  and Indian Central Government on its part does not want to antagonise an important southern segment of its electorate, Tamil Nadu. Thus, it has become a lifesaver to  Tamil Nadu leaders in times of difficulty in politics. 
Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the status quo will change in the near future.

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