Chennai:
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President MK Stalin slammed the BJP for raising the Katchatheevu issue ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and said the issue has now started to backfire.
Mr Stalin criticized Prime Minister Modi and further questioned why the Prime Minister had never spoken to the Sri Lankan government to return Katchatheevu Island.
“How much time has Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent in Sri Lanka in the last 10 years? Did he ask the Sri Lankan government to return Katchatheevu Island even once. When he met the Sri Lankan President, he said that the island of Katchatheevu belongs to India. Time Katchatheevu is not remembered by Prime Minister Modi,” Stalin said.
He asked Prime Minister Modi if he remembered Katchatheevu taking place during the Nehru and Indira Gandhi period, but does he remember an event that took place before two years?
“PM Modi came to Chennai at the Nehru Indoor Stadium on May 26, 2022 and took part in an event. In that case, I asked and asked him to release the GST fund and give exemption for NEET exam (to Tamil Nadu).
My first request was to retrieve the island of Katchatheevu, which is the rights of our fisherman. Does he remember? At least he read the request memorandum,” CM Stalin said.
CM Stalin further stated that S Jaishankar, the then Foreign Secretary, had said in 2015 that Katchatheevu was never a part of India and now since the elections have come, the statement has been changed as per their wish, he added.
“For years, questions were asked in Parliament about the Katchatheevu Island issue, but no proper answer was given. Many initiated an RTI application to get data about Katchatheevu Island, but no clarification was given. The BJP government, which said that the issue-related case is in the Supreme Court has not given any information about it, but now how it has provided information through RTI,” he told BJP.
He alleged that Prime Minister Modi suddenly cried crocodile tears for Katchatheevu Island. “In the last decade, Prime Minister Modi has never spoken about the shooting incident against Tamil fishermen and the arrest of fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy. Has Prime Minister Modi ever condemned Sri Lanka?” he asked.
Coming down heavily on the Prime Minister, Mr Stalin said Modi ji never spoke about China’s encroachment.
“China claims many places in Arunachal Pradesh. There are more than 30 places named in the Chinese language. What are you going to say about that? You don’t have the guts to stand up to China. In such a situation, do you have the right to speak on Katchatheevu?”, he alleged.
The development comes as Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday hit out at the Congress party, accusing it of “dividing the country into pieces” during its 60-year regime.
“There was an island under the sea in Tamil Nadu, but the Congress gave it to Sri Lanka and now if our fishermen accidentally venture into that area, they are arrested. Can this Congress ever protect our country if it has given our Katchatheevu to another? country,” said the Prime Minister.
Coming down heavily on the Congress, he further said that the party has given a ballot paper to its leader asking for the country to be divided into northern and southern regions instead of punishing him.
“The Congress could not develop the border villages of the country and call them the last villages, but the BJP called those villages the first and develop them. If the Congress government had remained in power till date, our former soldiers would not have gotten one.” grade one pension,” the Prime Minister claimed.
Prime Minister Modi on Monday also targeted the DMK for mishandling the Katchatheevu Island issue and alleged that Tamil Nadu’s ruling party was doing nothing to protect the interests of the state.
New details emerging on the issue of India handing over Katchatheevu Island to Sri Lanka have completely exposed the DMK’s double standards, PM Modi posted on Karunanidhi had given his assent to the agreement. despite his party’s public stance against the deal.
“Apart from the rhetoric, DMK has done NOTHING to safeguard the interests of Tamil Nadu. New details emerging about #Katchatheevu have completely exposed the DMK’s double standards. The Congress and DMK are family units. They only care about their own sons and daughters rising up. They do not. take care of someone else. Their insensitivity towards Katchatheevu has particularly damaged the interests of our poor fishermen and fisherwomen,” PM Modi tweeted.
The media report is based on an RTI response received by Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai to his queries on the 1974 India-Lanka agreement, when Indira Gandhi was prime minister.
The election to 543 Lok Sabha seats in the country will be held in seven phases from April 19. Nearly 97 crore voters are eligible to cast their votes in the general elections. All 39 seats in Tamil Nadu will be polled in a single phase on April 19 and counting of votes will take place on June 4.
Tamil Nadu ranks fifth in terms of Lok Sabha seats, with 39 seats, including 32 unreserved seats and seven reserved for SC candidates. In the 2019 elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance secured a landslide victory, winning 38 of the 39 seats.
In 2019, DMK won 23 Lok Sabha seats with a vote share of 33.2 percent, Congress won 8 seats with a vote share of 12.9 percent and CPI won two seats in Tamil Nadu.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by WhatsNew2Day staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)