MEA steers clear of Katchatheevu row

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday steered clear of the row surrounding Katchatheevu island.

To a volley of questions on the Katchatheevu issue, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal referred to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's recent comments on the matter.

"I would like to tell you that on the issues that have been raised, the external affairs minister has spoken to the press here in Delhi and also in Gujarat clarifying all the issues," he said.

"I would refer that you please look at his press engagements. You will get your answers there," Jaiswal said.

The Narendra Modi government has targeted the Congress and its ally DMK accusing it of overlooking national interests in the ceding of Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka in the mid-1970s.

The BJP has also been targeting the two parties for not ensuring the rights of the fishermen wanting to fish in waters around Katchatheevu.

Jaishankar on Monday claimed that prime ministers from the Congress displayed indifference about Katchatheevu island as if they did not care and gave away Indian fishermen's rights despite legal views to the contrary.

Prime ministers such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi dubbed Katchatheevu, given to Sri Lanka in 1974 as part of a maritime boundary agreement, as a "little island" and "little rock", he had told a press conference.

Jaishankar asserted that the issue has not cropped up abruptly but was always a live matter.

The records exist of the then foreign secretary keeping the then Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi, the late DMK patriarch, fully informed of the talks between the two countries, the external affairs minister said.

He also accused the DMK of conniving with the Congress in 1974 and thereafter in creating the situation which has been a cause of "great concern".

"The same people who connived at all this are today standing up and trying to pretend to be champions of fishermen," he said.