After Congress, PM Modi now targets DMK over Katchatheevu issue: ‘They don’t care for anyone else’

“Rhetoric aside, DMK has done NOTHING to safeguard Tamil Nadu’s interests. New details emerging on #Katchatheevu have UNMASKED the DMK’s double standards totally. Congress and DMK are family units. They only care that their own sons and daughters rise. They don’t care for anyone else. Their callousness on Katchatheevu has harmed the interests of our poor fishermen and fisherwomen in particular,” PM Modi posted.

The Congress has accused PM Modi of raking up the issue now with an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Stalin responds

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin too questioned the BJP’s “sudden love” for fishermen ahead of the elections and raised queries to the PM on issues including the Rs 37,000 crore flood relief packages sought by the state. He raised three queries to the PM with the Tamil hashtag “bathil sollunga Modi”.

“The people of Tamil Nadu want to put forth only three questions to those, who, after being in a Kumbakarna slumber for 10 years, are displaying a sudden love for the fishermen for elections. Why does the Union government return just 29 paise out of the Re 1 paid by TN as tax,” he asked.

“Why has not been a single penny given to Tamil Nadu as flood relief despite the state having faced two natural disasters (the floods in Chennai and Thoothukudi in December 2023),” Stalin said.

“Under ten years of BJP government, has there been any special scheme brought to Tamil Nadu?” he wrote on X, adding, “Instead of involving in diversions, please respond to all these, Prime Minister.”

Weighing in on the issue, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in a press conference Monday said that the decades-old territorial and fishing rights dispute around Katchatheevu Island did not surface suddenly and that it has often been debated in the Parliament.

Jaishankar holds Congress, DMK responsible

Jaishankar hit out at the Congress, saying. “Two parties, the Congress and the DMK, have approached this matter as though they have no responsibility for it. As though the situation is for today’s central government to resolve, there is no history to this, this has just happened.”

“Katchatheevu issue didn’t surface suddenly. It is a live issue and has been often debated in Parliament,” he said. The foreign minister said that it had been matter of frequent correspondence between the Centre and Tamil Nadu and that he had replied to TN chief minister 21 times.

“In 1974, India and Sri Lanka concluded an agreement where they drew a maritime boundary, and in drawing the maritime boundary Katchatheevu was put on the Srilankan side of the boundary…” Jaishankar elaborated.

Happened when Jaishankar was Foreign Secretary: Chidambaram 

Following Jaishankar’s statement, Rajya Sabha MP, P Chidambaram took to X to question the foreign minister on his “tirade” against the Congress and DMK.

“It is true that Fishermen were detained in the last 50 years. Likewise, India has detained many SL fishermen,” he wrote.

“Every government has negotiated with Sri Lanka and freed our fishermen. This has happened when Mr Jaishankar was a foreign service officer and when he was Foreign Secretary and when he is Foreign Minister. What has changed for Mr Jaishankar to launch a tirade against the Congress and DMK?” Chidambaram questioned.

“Were not Fishermen detained by Sri Lanka when Mr Vajpayee was PM and BJP was in power and in alliance with different political parties of TN? Were not fishermen detained by Sri Lanka when Mr Modi was in power since 2014?” he added.

Katchatheevu Island is a 285-acre territory within Sri Lanka’s maritime boundary, located 33 km off the coast of Tamil Nadu.

As The Indian Express reported earlier, PM Modi had claimed that the documents Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai received through his RTI application revealed India’s fluctuating stance on the island’s sovereignty, ultimately leading to it being ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974, when Indira Gandhi was PM.

Reacting to the first Times of India report, Modi said in a social media post: “Eye opening and startling! New facts reveal how Congress callously gave away Katchatheevu. This has angered every Indian and reaffirmed in people’s minds – we can’t ever trust Congress!”

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