DMK donated Katchatheevu for its personal gains: BJP's Tamilisai Soundararajan

CHENNAI: Bharatiya Janata Party leader Tamilisai Soundararajan on Monday hit out at the Congress and the DMK, the ruling party of Tamil Nadu, over the Katchatheevu Island issue, accusing them of "donating it for their personal gains". South Chennai BJP candidate also alleged that the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi, was 'threatened' of action against him by the Centre if "he would have not donated the island" to Sri Lanka.

"Because of the misgovernance of M Karunanidhi, there were allegations of corruption against him. Madam Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister. So there was an inquiry commission that proved that corruption had happened in Tamil Nadu. So to save themselves from the corruption charges they donated the Kachchatheevu for their own interests. The central government was pinpointing that if 'you are not donating the island, the centre will take action against you' and thus they donated sentiments of the Tamilian fishermen only to safeguard themselves," she said. Tamilisai also alleged that the previous governments- both in the state and at the centre failed to safeguard the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu.

"We are not politicising the issue, we only want to tell the people that the previous government failed to protect the sentiment of Tamil Nadu's people," the BJP leader added. The decades-old territorial and fishing rights dispute around Katchatheevu Island has been brought back into the limelight with the BJP and the opposition engaging in a war of words over the issue.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday targeted the DMK over the Katchatheevu island issue, alleging the ruling party of Tamil Nadu did nothing to safeguard the state's interests. New details emerging on the issue of India handing over the Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka have unmasked the DMK's double standards totally, he said on X, citing a news report that said that then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi had given his concurrence to the agreement despite his party's public posturing against the deal.

"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 tweeted. The media report is based on an RTI reply received by Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai to his queries on the 1974 agreement between India and Lanka when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister.

Doubling down on PM Modi's charge at Opposition over the Katchatheevu island row, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar today said Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first Prime Minister, wanted to give away the island to Sri Lanka. At the press conference, Jaishankar said prime ministers such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi dubbed Katchatheevu, given to Sri Lanka in 1974 as part of a maritime boundary agreement, as a "little island" and "little rock", asserting that the issue has not cropped up abruptly but was always a live matter.

"This is an observation by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in May of 1961. He says, he writes, I attach no importance at all to this little island and I would have no hesitation in giving up our claim to it. I do not like matters like this pending. Indefinitely and being raised again and again in parliament. So to Pandit Nehru, this was a little island. It had no importance. He saw it as a nuisance," EAM Jaishankar said. The island, located between Rameswaram (India) and Sri Lanka, was traditionally used by both Sri Lankan and Indian fishermen.

In 1974, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi accepted Katchatheevu as Sri Lankan territory under the "Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime agreement". The 1974 Agreement regarding historic waters between Sri Lanka and India in the Palk Strait and the Palk Bay formally confirmed Sri Lanka's sovereignty over the Island.