NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday tore into senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh over his “Does anyone live there?” remark in the backdrop of Katchatheevu island, which India relinquished in 1974 for Sri Lanka under the leadership of former PM Indira Gandhi.
Addressing a rally in Rajasthan‘s Karauli, the Prime Minister slammed the Congress for “shamelessly justifying anti-national misdeeds”.
“The Congress is shamelessly justifying anti-national misdeeds. Yesterday, a Congress leader asked, ‘Does anyone live there?’. If someone does not live then should it be given away? Then what will you call the desert? For them, a vacant part of the country is just a piece of land,” said PM Modi in a veiled attack on Digvijaya Singh.
PM Modi lambasted the Congress, saying the party can “give vacant land of a border state like Rajasthan to any country”.
Earlier, Digvijay Singh on Katchatheevu Island said,” Does anyone live there? This is utter nonsense. PM Modi talks baseless.”
“Not only the history of the Congress but its intentions are also dangerous,” said the Prime Minister.
PM Modi also targeted Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge for asking why the prime minister talked about the abrogation of Article 370, which accorded a special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The soil of their villages will tell (you) what relation Rajasthan has with Kashmir. The heroes of Rajasthan have made sacrifices on the soil of Kashmir,” PM Modi said.
“This is the same Congress which had given Katchatheevu, an Indian island near Tamil Nadu, to Sri Lanka,” he added.
Katchatheevu controversy
The decision of the Indira Gandhi government to hand over Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka in 1974 took centre stage in the Lok Sabha campaign in Tamil Nadu and beyond after official documents and records of Parliament showed how a vacillating India lost the battle for control of the island in Palk Strait to a smaller country determined to wrest it.
The documents, obtained by TN BJP chief K Annamalai through an RTI application, bring out Sri Lanka making up for its lack of size with tenacious pursuit of the 1.9 square km of land about 20km from Indian shore based on claims which New Delhi contested for decades only to acquiesce to finally.
Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, pressed its claim right after Independence, when it said Indian Navy (then Royal Indian Navy) could not conduct exercises on the island without its permission. In Oct 1955, Ceylon Air Force held its exercise on the island.
Its stance was reflected in a minute by first PM Jawaharlal Nehru on May 10, 1961, who dismissed the issue as inconsequential.
Addressing a rally in Rajasthan‘s Karauli, the Prime Minister slammed the Congress for “shamelessly justifying anti-national misdeeds”.
“The Congress is shamelessly justifying anti-national misdeeds. Yesterday, a Congress leader asked, ‘Does anyone live there?’. If someone does not live then should it be given away? Then what will you call the desert? For them, a vacant part of the country is just a piece of land,” said PM Modi in a veiled attack on Digvijaya Singh.
PM Modi lambasted the Congress, saying the party can “give vacant land of a border state like Rajasthan to any country”.
Earlier, Digvijay Singh on Katchatheevu Island said,” Does anyone live there? This is utter nonsense. PM Modi talks baseless.”
“Not only the history of the Congress but its intentions are also dangerous,” said the Prime Minister.
PM Modi also targeted Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge for asking why the prime minister talked about the abrogation of Article 370, which accorded a special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The soil of their villages will tell (you) what relation Rajasthan has with Kashmir. The heroes of Rajasthan have made sacrifices on the soil of Kashmir,” PM Modi said.
“This is the same Congress which had given Katchatheevu, an Indian island near Tamil Nadu, to Sri Lanka,” he added.
Katchatheevu controversy
The decision of the Indira Gandhi government to hand over Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka in 1974 took centre stage in the Lok Sabha campaign in Tamil Nadu and beyond after official documents and records of Parliament showed how a vacillating India lost the battle for control of the island in Palk Strait to a smaller country determined to wrest it.
The documents, obtained by TN BJP chief K Annamalai through an RTI application, bring out Sri Lanka making up for its lack of size with tenacious pursuit of the 1.9 square km of land about 20km from Indian shore based on claims which New Delhi contested for decades only to acquiesce to finally.
Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, pressed its claim right after Independence, when it said Indian Navy (then Royal Indian Navy) could not conduct exercises on the island without its permission. In Oct 1955, Ceylon Air Force held its exercise on the island.
Its stance was reflected in a minute by first PM Jawaharlal Nehru on May 10, 1961, who dismissed the issue as inconsequential.
