Taking a dig at the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday cited a media report and said the party “callously” gave away Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka.
“Eye opening and startling! New facts reveal how the Congress callously gave away Katchatheevu. This has angered every Indian and reaffirmed in people’s minds — we can’t ever trust Congress,” he said on X, sharing the report. Modi said, “Weakening India’s unity, integrity and interests has been the Congress’ way of working for 75 years and counting.”
Hitting back at Modi over his charge that Indira Gandhi gave away Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge asked why he did not take steps to get it back during his 10-year rule and alleged that raising the “sensitive” issue ahead of elections shows his “desperation”. The Opposition leader also questioned why the Prime Minister gave a “clean chit” to China after 20 bravehearts made supreme sacrifice in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh.
Home Minister Amit Shah attacked the Congress over the media report which suggested that Indira’s Government gave away Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka, saying it reflected that the party is against the unity and integrity of India.
According to the media report, which is based on an RTI reply obtained by Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai, the then Indira Government in 1974 had handed over the 1.9 square km island located at Palk Strait, 20 km from Indian shore, to Sri Lanka.
“Slow claps for Congress! They willingly gave up #Katchatheevu and had no regrets about it either. Sometimes an MP of the Congress speaks about dividing the nation and sometimes they denigrate Indian culture and traditions. This shows that they are against the unity and integrity of India. They only want to divide or break our nation,” Shah wrote on ‘X’.
The media report also cites first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s comments on the issue, a source of dispute between India and Sri Lanka, that he would have no hesitation in giving up claims on the island.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also took a swipe at the Congress, saying these facts should concern every citizen. He said on X, “It is important that people know the full truth about our past.” The facts brought out by the article should concern every citizen, he added.
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi claimed that the decision of the then Congress Government at the Centre has led to the capture and imprisonment of Tamil Nadu fishermen by Lankans as they at times wander to the island, which is only 25 km off their State’s coast, and are arrested.
The island was with India till 1975, he said. Tamil Nadu fishermen used to go there earlier but the agreement India signed with Lanka under the Indira Government barred them from doing so, he added.
Unfortunately, neither the DMK nor the Congress is raising the issue but Modi is due to his commitment to the issues pertaining to the country and its people, he said.
The BJP is hopeful that the issue will come handy to its efforts to gain political traction in the Dravidian territory as it gears up for the Lok Sabha polls, more so as it involves the neighbouring Sri Lanka whose treatment of its Tamilian citizens has long been a charged political issue in the State.
In a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Trivedi asked as to why he is keeping mum on the issue and that he should tell people that not only his party but his family too is responsible for this.
Kharge said Katchatheevu island was given to Sri Lanka as part of a friendly agreement in 1974 and reminded the Modi Government that it too had undertaken a similar “friendly gesture” towards Bangladesh in exchange of border enclaves.
“Pradhan Mantri Narendra Modi, you have suddenly woken up to the issues of territorial integrity and national security in your 10th year of misrule. Perhaps, elections are the trigger. Your desperation is palpable,” he said in a post on X.
Citing his statement made in 2015, he said the Prime Minister had said, “The Land Boundary Agreement between India and Bangladesh is not just about realignment of land, it is about a meeting of hearts”.
“This is your own statement in 2015 praising your own Government’s realisation of Indira’s initiative in 1974,” Kharge said.
He also alleged, “Under your Government, in a friendly gesture, 111 enclaves from India were transferred to Bangladesh, and 55 enclaves came to India.”
In 1974, the Congress chief said, a similar agreement, based on a friendly gesture, was initiated with another country - Sri Lanka on Katchatheevu.
“On the eve of elections in Tamil Nadu, you are raising this sensitive issue, but your own Government’s Attorney General, Shri Mukul Rohtagi in 2014 told the following to the Supreme Court - ‘Katchatheevu went to Sri Lanka by an agreement in 1974’¦ How can it be taken back today? If you want Katchatheevu back, you will have to go to war to get it back’.
Kharge also questioned the government’s foreign policy with regard to India’s neighbours including Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives. “It is the first time in history that Pakistan bought weapons from Russia, due to your foreign policy failure,” he alleged.
There is not a single village in India, he said, where a Congressperson has not shed blood for the unity of the nation. “It was the Congress under the guidance of our leaders Indira and Rajiv Gandhi who gave away their lives to successfully fight violent secessionist forces and maintained the unity and integrity of the nation by successfully keeping Punjab, Assam, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu and Nagaland among others, within the Indian Union, and merging Sikkim and Goa with India,” he said.
It was the Congress, he said, that despite severe constraints, kept the issue of Tibet’s sovereignty alive, “only to be summarily squandered by a predecessor PM of your party”. He also said “Stop this obsession with the Congress, and reflect on your own misdeeds, due to which India is suffering.
