Digvijaya Singh Counters PM Modi’s Katchatheevu Remark, Questions Island’s Inhabitation

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 10th April. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent remarks on the Katchatheevu issue, questioning whether anyone actually resides on the disputed island.

PM Modi raised the Katchatheevu row during an election rally in Tamil Nadu, accusing the Congress and DMK of keeping the state uninformed for many years. In response, Digvijaya Singh queried, “I want to ask if anybody lives on that island.”

The Katchatheevu issue, which concerns a small uninhabited island situated between India and Sri Lanka, resurfaced last week after the BJP accused the Indira Gandhi-led government of relinquishing it to Sri Lanka in 1974. Subsequently, in 1976, amid the Emergency period, another agreement was reached, limiting fishermen from both nations from fishing in each other’s waters. PM Modi has reiterated this matter in various rallies nationwide, linking it to the detention of Tamil fishermen and the confiscation of their boats by Sri Lankan authorities.

During a rally in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore, PM Modi criticized the Congress, stating, “When the Congress was in power at the Centre, they gave Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka. However, it remains quiet on which cabinet took the decision and who benefitted. Several fishermen have been arrested in the last few years, and then they (Congress) show false sympathy.”

The Katchatheevu issue continues to be a contentious topic, with political figures exchanging barbs over its handling and implications for fishermen in the region.