The Congress has responded sharply and said that the BJP government’s had failed to stop China’s aggression into Indian territory. This is because the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union Government was attempting to corner the Congress on former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s 1974 decision to hand over Katchatheevu Island to Sri Lanka ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
Senior Congressman P Chidambaram and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar sparred on Monday about the historical ramifications of the Katchatheevu Island issue.
Following PM Modi’s comments on the Katchatheevu Island issue, foreign minister Jaishankar read out the remarks made by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the issue. By doing this he put the Congress on the back foot.
He said “This is an observation by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in May of 1961. He says, 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.” Minister Jaishankar said about India’s first PM. Jaishankar continued, “This view extended to Indira Gandhi as well.”
In a sharp response to S Jaishankar’s comment, former Home Minister and prominent Congressman P Chidambaram cited a 2015 Right to Information (RTI) response in which the government of Narendra Modi defended the conditions under which India acknowledged that the small island belonged to Sri Lanka.
“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? I believe that Mr Jaishankar was the FM on 27-1-2015. The Reply justified the circumstances under which India acknowledged that the small island belonged to Sri Lanka. Why is the Foreign Minister and his ministry doing a somersault now? How quickly can people change colors? From a suave liberal Foreign Service officer to a smart Foreign Secretary to a mouthpiece of the RSS-BJP, the life and times of Mr Jaishankar will be recorded in the annals of acrobatic sports,” P Chidambaram said in a post on X.
Beyond merely criticising S Jaishankar, P Chidambaram asked why PM Modi brought up the 1974 Katchatheevu Island issue at a time when Chinese troops were occupying 2,000 square kilometers of Indian territory. The top Congressman claimed that PM Modi ought to talk about the events of the past three years since he has given China the clean chit.
