Congress chief Jairam Ramesh on Sunday responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comment towards the social gathering over the choice by the Indira Gandhi government to hand over the strategic Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka in 1974.
In response to PM Modi’s “Congress callously gave away Katchatheevu” comment, Jairam Ramesh raked up the land boundary settlement with Bangladesh from 2015 and mentioned the accord signed below the NDA authorities led to the shrinking of India’s land space by 10,051 acres.
He mentioned 17,161 acres of Indian territory had been handed over whereas solely 7,110 acres had been acquired. “Reasonably than make juvenile allegations on the Prime Minister, the Congress Get together supported the Invoice in each Homes of the Parliament,” mentioned Jairam Ramesh.
The Congress chief additionally alleged that the Prime Minister highlighting the difficulty of Katchatheevu was a pre-poll tactic by the BJP. “Confronted with getting precisely zero seats in Tamil Nadu, the PM and his drumbeaters have turn out to be determined,” mentioned Jairam Ramesh.
PM Modi’s touch upon the island got here after a Proper To Info (RTI) report revealed how the Congress authorities led by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi handed over Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka in 1974. The RTI utility was filed by Tamil Nadu BJP President Okay Annamalai.
Jairam Ramesh retorted to PM Modi and listed the “chronology”, alleging that Annamalai filed the RTI utility to “create a diversionary concern in Tamil Nadu”.
“Whereas lakhs of RTI queries on urgent public points are ignored or rejected, this one will get VVIP remedy and will get answered quickly,” mentioned the Congress chief.
He accused the BJP of “match-fixing” and mentioned PM Modi amplified the difficulty after Annamalai revealed the RTI reply.
Jairam Ramesh additionally countered the Prime Minister’s cost and mentioned in 1974 — the yr Katchatheevu was handed over to Sri Lanka — the Sirima Bandaranaike-Indira Gandhi Pact allowed the repatriation of 6,00,000 Tamil folks from Sri Lanka to India.
“In a single transfer, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi secured human rights and dignity for six lakh hitherto stateless folks,” mentioned the Congress chief.
He additionally attacked PM Modi over the India-China skirmishes through the years and mentioned, “The true menace to the integrity of the nation has been the large-scale encroachment of the Chinese language PLA on Indian territory in the previous few years.”
Jairam Ramesh accused the Prime Minister of “giving a clear chit” to China after the 2020 Galwan clash “by declaring that not a single Chinese language soldier has crossed over into Indian territory – even because the BJP’s personal MPs have confirmed Chinese language incursions onto our land”.
On June 15, 2020, twenty Indian troopers and an unspecified variety of Chinese language troops died in a conflict in jap Ladakh’s Galwan Valley. The nighttime skirmish escalated border tensions between the 2 neighbouring nations.
Jairam Ramesh’s response adopted after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the Congress on Sunday over the Katchatheevu concern. PM Modi additionally introduced up the difficulty at a ballot rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut.
