PM: Cong gave away Katchatheevu to Lanka

NT Correspondent

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday led a BJP charge against the Congress for "callously" giving away Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka, slamming it as yet another "anti-national" act of the party for which the country is still paying the price.

With the issue having a resonance in Tamil Nadu whose fishermen often bear the brunt of Lankan action against their alleged intrusion into its waters, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge hit back asking why the government did not act to take back the island in its 10 years in power and termed Modi's attack as polleve desperation.

Modi seized on a media report - based on anI reply Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai received on the decision of the then Indira Gandhi government in 1974 to hand over the territory in Palk Strait to the neighbouring country - to target the Congress, an ally of the state's ruling DMK.

"Eye-opening and startling! New facts reveal how Congress callously gave away Katchatheevu. This has angered every Indian ...," he said on X.