New Delhi: Slamming Foreign Minister S Jaishankar for holding the Congress responsible for Katchatheevu island issue, former Union Minister P Chidambaram on Monday asked the BJP leader to refer to the RTI reply of 2015, which acknowledged that a small island belonged to Sri Lanka .
The former Finance Minister on X said, “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”.
As the war of words intensified between the ruling BJP and the Congress over the Katchatheevu island issue, Chidambaram asked the Minister to “go through the reply which justified the circumstances under which India acknowledged that a small island belonged to Sri Lanka”.
Mentioning that, “Tit for tat is old. Tweet for Tweet is the new weapon” Chidambarm asked, “Why is the Foreign Minister and his ministry doing a somersault now?”
Wondering that how quickly people can change colours, the former Home Minister said, “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 said that in the last 50 years, fishermen of both India and Sri Lanka have been detained. And every government had negotiated with the Lankan government to free the fishermen.
“This has happened when Mr Jaishankar was a foreign service officer and when he was Foreign Secretary and when he is Foreign Minister,” Chidambaram said.
The senior Congress leader asked, “What has changed for Mr Jaishankar to launch a tirade against the Congress and DMK?” Whether 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? And were not fishermen detained by Sri Lanka when Mr Modi was in power since 2014?”
Earlier in the day, S Jaishankar had slammed former Prime Ministers from the Congress party for displaying "indifference" about Katchatheevu Island and gave away Indian fishermen's rights despite legal views to the contrary.