Past PMs simply didn’t care, says EAM as Katchatheevu row escalates

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, April 1

The ruling BJP on Monday intensified its offensive on the Katchatheevu issue with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar citing Parliament records to say that former Prime Minister Jahawarlal Nehru “simply did not care” about ceding the island which he saw as a “nuisance” and to which he “attached no importance”.

Cong, DMK harmed nation’s interests

The DMK has done nothing to safeguard Tamil Nadu’s interests… The Congress and DMK are family units. Their callousness on Katchatheevu has harmed the interests of our poor fishermen and fisherwomen. Narendra Modi, PM

Jaishankar, tracing the history of circumstances that led to Katchatheevu being given away to Sri Lanka through an International Maritime Boundary Agreement between the two nations in June 1974, said a subsequent 1976 agreement “took away the safeguards assured to the Indian fishermen in 1974”. Noting that this abdication of claim “could not have happened without the connivance of the Congress-led Union government and the DMK-led Tamil Nadu Government at the time”, Jaishankar shared MEA records of June 19, 1974, that reveal a conversation on the issue between then Foreign Secretary and Tamil Nadu CM K Karunanidhi, who is quoted as accepting PM Indira Gandhi’s suggested solution on the issue. “The party that keeps asking how the island was given away was kept fully informed of the move...Those who connived (read Congress and DMK) to give away Katchatheevu are now politically posturing as if they are champions of the cause of fishermen and have nothing to do with the issue,” Jaishankar said questioning the role of former PMs Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, and Karunanidhi (the father of incumbent CM MK Stalin) in the matter.

Jaishankar cited RTI replies the MEA gave to Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai in the matter and quoted Nehru’s description of Katchatheevu in May of 1961 as follows, “I attach no importance at all to this little island and I have no hesitation in giving up my claim on it. I don’t like to see such matters kept pending and raised again and again in Parliament.” “To Pt Nehru, this was a little island. It had no importance. He saw it as a nuisance,” he said.

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