Katchatheevu row: Chief Minister Stalin, Chidambaram hit back at PM, BJP

CHENNAI: The ruling DMK and its ally Congress on Monday responded in kind to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP's taunts over the Katchatheevu row and said that the PM must respond to other crucial questions on the poll fray instead of engaging in diversionary tactics.

In a message posted on his 'X' page, Chief Minister Stalin said, "The people of Tamil Nadu have only three questions to those pretending to be affectionate towards the fishermen for elections after remaining in deep slumber for ten years."

"Why does the union government allocate only 29 paise in return for every one rupee contributed by Tamil Nadu through taxes? Why was not a single rupee allocated as relief assistance to Tamil Nadu despite the state suffering two natural calamities in a short succession? Is there a single special project implemented in Tamil Nadu during the ten-year BJP regime?" Stalin wondered, asking Prime Minister Modi to respond to the three questions instead of engaging in diversionary tactics.

Echoing similar concern, former union finance minister P Chidambaram responded specifically to the charges levelled by union external affairs minister S Jaishankar and said, "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 doing a somersault now?"

Taking a swipe at the bureaucrat-turned MEA, Chidambaram said, "How quickly can people change colours. From a suave liberal Foreign Service officer to a smart Foreign Secretary to a mouthpiece of the RSS-BJP, life and times of Mr Jaishankar will be recorded in the annals of acrobatic sports."

Adding that Indian fishermen were detained by Lanka and vice versa in the last 50 years, Chidambaram said, "Every government has negotiated with Sri Lanka and freed our fishermen. This has happened when Mr Jaishankar was a foreign service officer and when he was Foreign Secretary and when he is Foreign Minister What has changed for Mr Jaishankar to launch a tirade against the Congress and DMK? Weren't Fishermen detained by Sri Lanka when Mr Vajpayee was PM and BJP was in power and in alliance with different political parties of TN? Weren't fishermen detained by Sri Lanka when Mr Modi was in power since 2014?"