Katchatheevu Row: PM Modi Slams DMK, Jaishankar Says ‘PM Nehru Wanted To Give It Away’

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi raked up the Katchatheevu island issue once again on Monday morning, lashing out at MK Stalin-led DMK. The Prime Minister said that the party has done nothing to safeguard Tamil Nadu’s interests.

In a tweet on X, PM Modi wrote, “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.”

He cited a report by Times of India which claimed that then chief minister M Karunanidhi had given his concurrence to the agreement despite his party the DMK’s public posturing against the deal. The report also shared a statement by late DMK MP Era Sezhiyan who expressed anger at the India-Sri Lanka Maritime Agreement which was signed by the then Indira Gandhi government by which India relinquished its claim on Katchatheevu Island and called it “an unholy agreement.”

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar also addressed the media on the issue and said Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first Prime Minister, wanted to give away the island to Sri Lanka.

Quoting former External Affairs Minister Swaran Singh’s 1974 address in Parliament, Jaishankar said, “I feel confident that the agreement demarcating the maritime boundary in the Palk Bay will be considered as fair, just and equitable to both countries. At the same time, I wish to remind the honourable members that in concluding this agreement, the rights of fishing, pilgrimage and navigation, which both sides have enjoyed in the past, have been fully safeguarded for the future.”

In less than two years, Dr Jaishankar said, there was another agreement between India and Sri Lanka. “In this agreement, India proposed the following: with the establishment of the exclusive economic zones by the two countries, India and Sri Lanka will exercise sovereign rights over the living and non-living resources of their respective zones. The fishing vessels and fishermen of India shall not engage in fishing in the historic waters, the territorial sea and the exclusive zone of Sri Lanka.”

“(In) 1974, assurance is given. By 1976, an agreement is concluded which gives away this assurance,” he added.

The consequence is that 6,184 Indian fishermen have been detained in the last 20 years. In the same period, 1,175 Indian fishing vessels have been seized by Lankans. The Katchatheevu issue has been repeatedly raised in Parliament by various parties over the past five years. “In fact, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has written to me numerous times. My record shows that I have replied to the current Chief Minister (MK Stalin) 21 times on this issue. This is not an issue which has suddenly surfaced. This is a live issue,” he said.

The Congress and DMK, he said, have approached the matter “as though they have no responsibility”. “We believe that the public has a right to know how this situation came about.”

“We know who did this, how the situation arose. What we do not know is who hid this, what has been concealed from the public,” he said.

According to him, India’s claim is mainly that the Kathatheevu island belonged to the Raja of Ramnad and that he had it from the British era. Later on, his rights moved to the Madras government. “The Indian view was also that there was no documentary evidence that Sri Lanka had an original title,” Jaishankar was quoted as saying by NDTV, adding that the Sri Lankan argument was that they have records going back to the 17th century.

After both India and Sri Lanka became independent, he said, there were issues between these countries about using this island. In 1974, Jaishankar, said then Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Mrs Gandhi spoke about this on the latter’s trip to India.

Katchatheevu island issue fact file

• The 163-acre stretch is located in the Palk Strait between Rameswaram in India and Sri Lanka.
• Earlier, It was used by fishermen from both countries and was initially part of the Madras Presidency.
• Katchatheevu became part of Sri Lanka in 1974 after then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed the “Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime Agreement”.
• The document pertained to historic waters between Sri Lanka and India in the Palk Strait and the Palk Bay.

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