Govt Can't Give Away Land To Anyone: Brij Khandelwal, Katchatheevu's First Petitioner

Brij Khandelwal, journalist and first petitioner on the Katchatheevu island issue, has said that the government has not right to give away the land to anyone.

As the BJP blamed the Congress and DMK for ceding the islet, the issue has now assumed the centre stage in the poll season.

The controversy erupted following a Right to Information (RTI) request filed by Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and a host of other leaders have blamed the Congress and the Dravida DMK for callously giving away the barren and uninhabited 1.6 km-long Katchatheevu island, which India recognised as Sri Lankan territory in 1974.

Speaking to ANI, Brij Khandelwal said, "In my petition in Delhi High Court in 1974, I had raised the question that the government has no right to give away any bit of land of the motherland to anyone. This is sedition, I thought. At the time, the petition was dismissed by the court citing that I had no locus standi on the matter. Now, for the last four days, this issue has come up. I demand that the Government of India should release a white paper on this issue. I hope PM Modi will do something on this issue after the elections."

Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed a maritime boundary agreement with her Sri Lankan counterpart Sirimavo Bandaranaike, recognizing the island located in the Palk Strait. This island, situated approximately 24 km northeast of Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu and about 22 km southwest of Delft Islands in Sri Lanka, was acknowledged as a part of Sri Lankan territory.

However, a 2015 RTI reply provided by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and shared by Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi noted on 'X' that there was no exchange or relinquishment of territory belonging to India as part of the 1974 agreement. This was because the area in question had never been demarcated.