Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey said on Monday that the Congress and DMK surrendered India’s maritime rights by giving Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka.

Speaking to reporters outside Indian Parliament, he also celebrated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s record tenure days in public office as a Chief Minister and Prime Minister, describing it as a historic milestone for Indian democracy.

‘I have provided the documents; I have provided a copy of the agreement. The agreement copy states that the entire maritime area where India used to have rights. You might know about Katchatheevu. I will even give you the date that the agreement was made on June 26th, so June 26th is the date,’ he said.

Adding to this, he said, ‘In this, they joined hands with the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Karunanidhi ji, and made this agreement. We have the minutes of both agreements involving Karunanidhi ji from the Government of India meetings; I will provide those to whoever asks for them as well.’

He blamed governments from Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh for harming fishermen’s interests and escalating tensions with Sri Lanka
‘Understand what happened after this. After the ‘76 agreement and the ‘74 Katchatheevu agreement, the situation that developed was that lakhs of fishermen would consistently go into our seas and Sri Lanka would capture and detain them.

And even that wasn’t enough; when Vajpayee ji tried to do something about this in 2002-2003, a joint statement was issued with Vajpayee ji, which was overturned again in 2008. Today, I have mentioned the 2008 joint statement as well as the agreement of March 23, 1976. Can anyone do anything more disgraceful? Our fishermen were reduced to beggars. In Tamil Nadu, the politics that DMK is playing with the Congress, they will have to answer to the public in the upcoming elections, said Dubey.

‘This will cause problems for fishermen in the future, and fishermen will go to jail because the entire sea area where India has control at the international border, that control will go to Sri Lanka. Setalvad wrote those Attorney General’s views in 1961-62. That’s what I said, the process that started with Nehru ji was furthered by Indira ji and completed by Manmohan Singh ji and Sonia ji in 2008,’ Dubey stated.

He also praised Indian PM Narendra Modi, calling his long tenure and rise from humble beginnings a matter of national pride and a symbol of growing public trust.

Source: ANI

- Agencies