Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Stalin lashes out at PM Modi over Kachattiu island dispute

chennai:

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief 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 PM Modi, further questioning why PM Modi did not talk to the Sri Lankan government to return to Kachathiu Island.

“How many times has Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Sri Lanka in the last 10 years? Did he ask the Sri Lankan government to return Kachattiu Island even once? Did he tell Kachattiu Island when he met the President of Sri Lanka? Belongs to India. Prime Minister Modi did not remember Kachhatyev at that time,” Mr. Stalin said.

He asked Prime Minister Modi that he remembered the Kachatiu incident which happened during the time of Nehru and Indira Gandhi, but did he remember the incident that happened two years ago?

“Prime Minister Modi came to the Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai on May 26, 2022 and attended an event. At that event, I requested and requested him to release GST funds and waive NEET exam (Tamil Nadu state).

My first demand is to take back Kachatiu Island, which is the right of our fishermen. Does he still remember? Did he at least read the request memo? “Stalin said.

CM Stalin further said that in 2015, the then External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said that Kachattiu was never a part of India but now that the elections have come, this statement has been changed as per their wish, he added.

“Over the years, whenever questions have been raised in Parliament on the Katchatheevu Island issue, no proper answer has been given. Many people have launched RTI applications to get data on Katchatheevu Island, but no clarification has been given. The BJP government said that with the A case related to the issue is pending. “The Supreme Court has not provided information about it, but now how can it provide information through RTI,” he lashed out at the BJP.

He claimed that Prime Minister Modi suddenly shed crocodile tears for Kachatiu Island. “In the past 10 years, Prime Minister Modi has never talked about the shooting incident of Tamil fishermen and the arrest of fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy. Has Prime Minister Modi ever condemned Sri Lanka?” he asked.

Stalin further came down heavily on Prime Minister Modi, who he said had never spoken on the issue of Chinese aggression.

“China has claimed sovereignty over many places in Arunachal Pradesh. More than 30 places are named in Chinese. What are you going to say? You don’t have the guts to oppose China. Do you still have a say in this situation?” On Katchatheevu? ” he asserted.

The development comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday lashed out at the Congress party, accusing it of “dividing the country into pieces” during its 60 years in power.

“There is an island under the sea in Tamil Nadu but Congress gave it to Sri Lanka and now when our fishermen stray into the area they are arrested. When Congress gave our Katchatheevu to another country, Can it also protect our land?’ the country,” the prime minister said.

He came down heavily on the Congress and further said that the party had given votes to the leader who demanded bifurcation of the country into north and south zones instead of punishing him.

“The Congress could not develop the country’s border villages and called them the last villages, but the BJP called these villages the first villages and developed them. If the Congress government had been in power till now, our Ex-soldiers will not get ‘a’ first-class pension,’ Prime Minister claims.

Prime Minister Modi on Monday also accused the DMK of mishandling the Kachattiu island issue and claimed that the ruling party in Tamil Nadu had not taken any steps to safeguard the national interest.

Prime Minister Modi posted on Dee has agreed to the deal despite his party’s public opposition to the deal.

“Rhetoric aside, DMK has done nothing to protect the interests of Tamil Nadu. New details emerging on #Katchatheevu completely expose DMK’s double standards. Congress and DMK are family units. They only care about their sons and daughter Rise. They don’t care about others, Prime Minister Modi tweeted: “Care about others. Their callousness on Katchatheevu harms the interests of our poor fishermen, especially the fishermen. “

The media report is based on an RTI reply received by Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party chief K Annamalai to his query on the agreement signed between India and Lanka in 1974, when Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister.
Elections for the country’s 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting from April 19. Nearly 970 million voters are eligible to vote in the general election. All 39 seats in Tamil Nadu will go to single-phase voting 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, of which 32 are unreserved and 7 are reserved for SC candidates. In the 2019 elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance achieved a landslide victory, winning 38 out of 39 seats.

In 2019, the DMK won 23 Lok Sabha seats with 33.2% of the vote, the Congress won 8 seats with 12.9% of the vote, and the Communist Party of India won two seats in Tamil Nadu.

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