‘Eye-opening and startling’: PM Modi slams Congress over 1974 Katchatheevu handover | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday slammed the Congress party over the Katchatheevu island controversy, after a Right To Information (RTI) report revealed the then Indira Gandhi’s government’s decision to hand over the strategic island of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka in 1974.
Calling the revelation “eye-opening and startling,” PM Modi accused the grand old party of weakening the country’s integrity and interests.
PM Modi dubbed it as a “callous” decision and also said that the handover of Katchatheevu by the Congress government has angered every Indian.
“This has angered every Indian and reaffirmed in people’s minds. We can’t ever trust Congress. Weakening India’s unity, integrity and interests has been Congress’ way of working for 75 years and counting,” PM Modi wrote on X.

The documents, acquired by Tamil Nadu BJP state president K Annamalai through an RTI application, revealed Sri Lanka’s persistent efforts to claim 1.9 square kilometers of land approximately 20 kilometers from the Indian shore. The government in 1974, handed over the territory in Palk Strait to the neighbouring country.
Despite its small size, Sri Lanka pursued this claim tenaciously, while New Delhi contested it for decades before eventually acquiescing.

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.