PM Modi blames Indira Gandhi for transferring Katchatheevu to SL, declares issue as Congress' legacy

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the Lok Sabha, blamed the Congress party for the partition of India and accused the Indira Gandhi government of giving the Katchatheevu Island to Sri Lanka in 1974. 

 

 

The island, situated between Rameswaram in India and Sri Lanka, was historically used by Indian and Sri Lankan fishermen. 1974 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi accepted Katchatheevu as Sri Lankan territory under the "Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime Agreement." 

 

 

Modi criticized the Congress party for dividing India for political reasons and asserted that the DMK government in Tamil Nadu has been urging him to reclaim Katchatheevu. 

 

 

He questioned why the island, which he referred to as a part of "Maa Bharati" (Mother India), was given to another country under Indira Gandhi's leadership.