‘PM Modi gave clean-chit to China’: Chidambaram hits back at Jaishankar on Katchatheevu island row

Katchatheevu island row: Ahead of Lok Sabha elections 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union Government is trying to corner Congress on former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's 1974 decision to hand over Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram engaged in a war of words on Monday related to the historical aspects of the Katchatheevu island issue.

In a press conference after on the Katchatheevu island issue, S Jaishankar read out the observations made by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the Katchatheevu island.

"This is an observation by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in May of 1961. He says, he writes, at all to this little island and I would have no hesitation in giving up our claim to it. I do not like matters like this pending. Indefinitely and being raised again and again in parliament. So to Pandit Nehru, this was a little island. It had no importance. He saw it as a nuisance," the foreign minister quoted India's first Prime Minister as saying.

"This view continued to Indira Gandhi as well," Jaishankar added.

Former Home Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram reacted sharply to S Jaishankar's remark and mentioned a 2015 Right to Information (RTI) application where justified the circumstances under which India acknowledged that a small island belonged to Sri Lanka.

"Tit for tat is old. Tweet for Tweet is the new weapon. Will Foreign Minister Mr. Jaishankar please refer to the RTI reply dated 27-1-2015? I believe that Mr Jaishankar was the FM on 27-1-2015. The Reply justified the circumstances under which India acknowledged that a small island belonged to Sri Lanka. Why is the Foreign Minister and his ministry