Cong, DMK Approached The Matter With No Responsibility: EAM Jaishankar’s BIG Claim on Katchatheevu

New Delhi: The Minister of External Affairs and BJP leader Dr S Jaishankar on Monday slammed the Congress and Stalin-led DMK in a press conference over the ‘Katchatheevu issue’. During a press conference at BJP's Delhi headquarters, Jaishankar said that the Katchthaeevu issue didn't surface suddenly but has been a live issue, relevant and often debated in the Parliament of India.  The issue resurfaced after a media report based on an RTI reply received by Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai on the 1974 pact. 

“Today, it is important for the public to know and the people to judge, this issue has been hidden too long from the gaze of the public. We know who did this, what we don't know is who hid it...We believe that the public has the right to know how did this situation come up.”

Referring to the 1974 agreement, when the then-Indira Gandhi government ceded Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka, Jaishankar said that a blunder was committed. 

"The island was given away in 1974 and the fishing rights were given away in 1976... One, the most basic recurring (aspect) is the indifference shown by the then central government and the PMs about the territory of India... That fact is they simply did not care.”

Taking a sharp swipe at the Congress and DMK, he added, “Congress & DMK have approached this matter as though they have no responsibility on this.” Sharing more details, Jaishankar said that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had raised the issue to him to which he has replied 21 times.

Furthermore, speaking on the fishing rights, the EAM said, “We are talking about 1958 and 1960... The main people in the case wanted to make sure that at least we should get the fishing rights… “ He claimed that the fishermen are still being detained today, and boats are still being apprehended, with the issue still being raised in Parliament. ”

Highlighting the efforts by the Modi-led government, he said that the current government is the one who is working on releasing the arrested fishermen.

“It is being raised in Parliament by two parties who did it...Whenever there was an arrest, how do you think they were released? It is very good to give statements from Chennai, but the people who do the work are us....”