P Chidambaram attacks S Jaishankar: ‘From liberal officer to RSS mouthpiece’

New Delhi: Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday launched a scathing attack on external affairs minister S Jaishankar over the latter’s press-conference on the Katchatheevu island issue, saying he had become a “mouthpiece” of the BJP and RSS from being a “suave liberal foreign service” officer.
S Jaishankar, one of the most vocal ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet, today claimed that former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru considered Katchatheevu island a nuisance.
“This is an observation by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in May of 1961. He says, he writes, I attach no importance at all to this little island and I would have no hesitation in giving up our claim to it. I do not like matters like this pending. Indefinitely and being raised again and again in parliament. So to Pandit Nehru, this was a little island. It had no importance. He saw it as a nuisance,” S Jaishankar said in a press conference.
Reacting to his remarks, Chidambaram asked why S Jaishankar launched a tirade against the DMK and the BJP.
“Tit for tat is old. Tweet for Tweet is the new weapon. 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? 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,” he wrote on X.
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Katchatheevu island is located between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu’s Rameshwaram. In 1974, the Indira Gandhi government allowed Sri Lanka to cede the island.
“It is true that Fishermen were detained in the last 50 years. Likewise, India has detained many SL fishermen. 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? Were not Fishermen detained by Sri Lanka when Mr Vajpayee was PM and BJP was in power and in alliance with different political parties of TN? Were not fishermen detained by Sri Lanka when Mr Modi was in power since 2014?” P Chidambaram wrote on X.
In the press conference, S Jaishankar claimed that the island – which was given away by the Congress government – was of strategic importance.
“We are talking about 1958 and 1960. The main people in the case wanted to make sure that at least we should get the fishing rights. The island was given away in 1974 and the fishing rights were given away in 1976… One, the most basic recurring (aspect) is the indifference shown by the then central government and the PMs about the territory of India… That fact is they simply did not care… In an observation given by the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru in May 1961, he wrote, ‘I attach no importance at all to this little island and I would have no hesitation in giving up our claim to it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the MK Stalin-led Tamil Nadu government had done nothing to safeguard the state’s interests.
“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. They only care that their own sons and daughters rise. They don’t care for anyone else. Their callousness on Katchatheevu has harmed the interests of our poor fishermen and fisherwomen in particular,” PM Modi tweeted.
On Sunday, he claimed the Congress’s action was against national unity.
Today, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin also questioned PM Modi’s “sudden love for fishermen”.
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Frequent arrests of fishermen by Sri Lankan authorities is an emotive issue in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu.
Karnataka is the only southern state where the BJP is influential electorally. The party will have to pull off a stellar performance in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana if it wants to realise its dream of 400-plus Lok Sabha seats.
With inputs from PTI, ANI