Congress counters Katchatheevu Island charge, raises ‘Chinese occupation’

The party and some leaders in other Opposition parties such as Shiv Sena (UBT) cited a 2015 RTI reply, which stated that the agreements in 1974 and 1976 with Lanka did not involve either acquiring or ceding territory belonging to India, and asked whether the “change” in Modi government’s stance was for “election politics”.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said the Indira government acknowledged Lanka’s claim on Katchatheevu island to “maintain good relations and to save the lives of lakhs of Tamils”.

“Why is the PM raking up an issue that was settled in 1974? To maintain good relations with Sri Lanka and help lakhs of Tamils there, the Indira government negotiated with the Sri Lankan government and in that negotiation, the settlement was that Katchatheevu, a very small island about 1.9 sq km, will be acknowledged as belonging to Sri Lanka and in return six lakh Tamils were allowed to come to India,” Chidambaram said.

“Why is the PM raking up that issue instead of talking about recent issues? 2,000 sq km of Indian territory is occupied by Chinese troops and that is a fact,” he said.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi shared on X an RTI response from the Ministry of External Affairs in 2015, which said: “This did not involve either acquiring or ceding of territory belonging to India since the area in question had never been demarcated. Under the agreements, the Island of Katchatheevu lies on the Sri Lankan side of the India-Sri Lanka International Maritime Boundary Line.”