Stage-Managed Controversy: Chidambaram On Katchatheevu Row

Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the controversy around Katchatheevu island, calling it a "staged managed controversy".

Speaking to news agency ANI, Chidambaram questioned why Prime Minister Narendra Modi was silent for nine years.

"PM doesn't want to answer any questions. In the last 10 years, he has not answered any of our questions also. In 2015, in an RTI reply, MEA replied saying that Katchatheevu island is based on the international maritime borderline."

After looking at the evidence, the Government of India agreed with the Sri Lankan government that the island fell on the Sri Lankan side, he said. The most significant part of the letter states that Katchatheevu is "not acquired nor ceded to anyone".

"So how does the PM say that Katchatheevu is ceded to Sri Lanka?" Chidambaram questioned.

Documents obtained by TN BJP chief K Annamalai through an RTI application shed light on Sri Lanka's persistent pursuit of a 1.9 square km landmass, located about 20 km from the Indian shore. Sri Lanka asserted its claim immediately after Independence, challenging India's historical naval exercises on the island.

This issue has become a fresh flashpoint between the BJP and the DMK-Congress in the Lok Sabha polls. From Prime Minister Narendra Modi to several BJP ministers, many have cornered both the DMK and the Congress for giving away the island to Lanka.

Chidambaram says, "...If the PM was so passionate about the island- what did he do about it in the last 9 years? For 9 years the PM was silent, suddenly in the middle of the elections, they ask the BJP president to submit an RTI. This is a staged managed controversy..."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a two-day visit to Tamil Nadu. Today, he is holding a roadshow in Chennai.