#Katchatheevu Row : Chidambaram Leads Congress Charge, Hits Back At Centre ; Opposition Leaders Cite RTI Reply Dated 27-1- 2015 To Slam S Jaishankar

Congress has hit back at the centre over the Katchatheevu island issue, some opposition leaders cited a 2015 RTI reply, which stated that the agreements in 1974 and 1976 did not involve either acquiring or ceding of territory belonging to India, and asked whether the “change” in Modi government’s stance was for “election politics”.

Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram hit out at the government over the issue.

“Tit for tat is old. Tweet for Tweet is the new weapon. Will Foreign Minister Mr. Jaishankar please refer to the RTI reply dated 27-1-2015…The Reply justified the circumstances under which India acknowledged that a small island belonged to Sri Lanka,” Chidambaram said.

Why is the Foreign Minister and his ministry doing a somersault now, he asked.

“How quickly can people change colours. From a suave liberal Foreign Service officer to a smart Foreign Secretary to a mouthpiece of the RSS-BJP, life and times of Mr Jaishankar will be recorded in the annals of acrobatic sports,” Chidambaram said

“It is true that fishermen were detained in the last 50 years. Likewise, India has detained many Sri Lankan fishermen. Every government has negotiated with Sri Lanka and freed our fishermen,” the former home minister said.

“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?” he said.

Were not fishermen detained by Sri Lanka when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was PM and the BJP was in power and in alliance with different political parties of Tamil Nadu, he asked.

“Were not fishermen detained by Sri Lanka when Mr Modi was in power since 2014?” he said.

In a post on X, Shiv Sena-UBT leader Priyanka Chaturvedi shared an RTI response from the ministry of external affairs in 2015 which said Katchatheevu Island lies on the Sri Lanka side of the India-Sri Lanka International Maritime Boundary Line, that was delineated by the 1974 Agreement demarcating it in the Palk Straits and a subsequent 1976 Agreement demarcating it in the Gulf of Mannar and Bay of Bengal.

“This did not involve either acquiring or ceding of territory belonging to India since the area in question had never been demarcated. Under the Agreements, the Island of Katchatheevu lies on the Sri Lankan side of the India-Sri Lanka International Maritime Boundary Line,” the RTI reply said.

Tagging the RTI reply dated January 27, 2015, Chaturvedi said, “Maybe MEA will be able to address this discrepancies in its RTI response in 2015 vis a vis 2024.”

“As per the RTI response in 2015 when current Foreign Minister was serving as the FS (foreign secretary) it was said ‘This did not involve either acquiring or ceding of territory belonging to India since the area in question had never been demarcated…,” the Shiv Sena-UBT leader said.

“Today the Foreign Minister and yesterday the PM claimed it has been ‘ceded’. So is the change in stance for their election politics or has Modiji made a case for Sri Lanka?” she said.

Tagging her post on X, Congress general secretary, in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh said, “Just shows how quickly the Foreign Secretary changed his colours when he became External Affairs Minister.”

“There is no limit to hypocrisy or lie-mongering as far as the Modi Sarkar is concerned,” Ramesh charged.