Katchatheevu Island Row: DMK Double Standards Unmasked, Says PM Modi as Docs Reveal Karunanidhi’s 1974 Nod

The DMK has done nothing to safeguard the interests of Tamil Nadu and its “double standards” on the Katchatheevu issue have been exposed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday, tearing into the regional party over its alleged role in the island being “given away” to Sri Lanka.

“Rhetoric aside, DMK has done NOTHING to safeguard Tamil Nadu’s interests. New details emerging on #Katchatheevu have UNMASKED the DMK’s double standards totally… Congress and DMK are family units… Their callousness on Katchatheevu has harmed the interests of our poor fishermen and fisherwomen in particular,” PM Modi posted on X (formerly Twitter).

News18 also reported on Monday that then Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi was “taken into confidence” before the Indira Gandhi government relinquished rights to the Katchatheevu island as part of the India-Sri Lanka Maritime Agreement signed in 1974.

An MEA document accessed by News18 revealed that while the DMK had launched protests against ceding the island, Karunanidhi had accepted the Centre’s proposal.

“On the substance of the proposal, the Chief Minister indicated that he was inclined to accept the suggested solution…the Chief Minister having once again signified his general acceptance of the suggested solution, said that, for obvious political reasons, he could not be expected to take a public stand in favour of it,” the documents said about the foreign secretary’s meeting with Karunanidhi.

The document added that Karunanidhi assured the foreign secretary that he would help keep the reaction “low key” and would not allow it to be played up.

The Katchatheevu issue re-entered the political discourse ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections when Prime Minister Modi, on Sunday, led the BJP charge against the Congress for “callously” giving away the island to Sri Lanka. The issue still has resonance in Tamil Nadu whose fishermen often bear the brunt of Lankan action against their alleged intrusion into its waters.

“Eye-opening and startling! New facts reveal how Congress callously gave away Katchatheevu. This has angered every Indian and reaffirmed in people’s minds- we can’t ever trust Congress,” he had said on X. The PM had shared another report based on an RTI reply received by Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai on the decision of the then Indira Gandhi government in 1974 to hand over the territory in Palk Strait to Sri Lanka. The DMK, currently in power in Tamil Nadu, is in alliance with the Congress for the upcoming general elections.

Reacting to the charge, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the island was given to Sri Lanka as part of a friendly agreement in 1974 and said the Narendra Modi government, too, had undertaken a similar “friendly gesture” towards Bangladesh with an exchange of border enclaves.

DMK Organisation Secretary RS Bharathi said the Prime Minister has “no achievements” to showcase and charged that he was spreading “lies”. Bharathi said in 1974, the DMK held state-wide agitations and public meetings to oppose and condemn the ceding of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka.

“The DMK’s position has been made amply clear multiple times by the late party patriarch M Karunanidhi and party president MK Stalin. The DMK was out and out against giving away Katchatheevu to the neighbouring country,” Bharathi said.