• Source:PTI
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Katchatheevu Row: With just weeks left in the commencement of Lok Sabha elections, a tiny island in Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka has become a flashpoint in Tamil Nadu, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to expand its footprints. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue and said that after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax (IT), the prime minister has also added RTI to his alliance. 

"After the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax (IT), he has also included RTI in his alliance. Since (PM) Modi knows that people will not believe if he says anything, he is using RTI for gimmicks," Stalin said.

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The DMK chief also accused PM Modi of staging a "drama" and coming up with "stories" on the Katchatheevu issue, calling the Centre’s RTI disclosures over the issue as ‘wrong information’. 

Stalin’s remarks came after PM Modi slammed the Congress last week over the Katchatheevu island row following a Right to Information (RTI) report revealing the decision of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's government to transfer over the key island to Sri Lanka in 1974. The prime minister alleged that the Congress "callously" gave away the key island to the neighbouring country. 

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PM Modi also hit out at Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin-led DMK government last week and said that the party 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 wrote on X.

In response, Stalin also said that the prime minister has not condemned Sri Lanka over the fishermen’s arrest and has not opposed China over its claim on Arunachal Pradesh. 

“Has PM Modi, during his 10-year tenure, who is now talking on Katchatheevu ever condemned Sri Lanka over arrest of fishermen and firing instances against them? Why did he not do that?” Stalin was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. “There is no courage to censure Sri Lanka. There is no courage to oppose China. How can you talk about Katchatheevu?” he added.

Stalin also questioned how the government provided "wrong information" about the nation's security under the RTI to BJP Tamil Nadu unit president K Annamalai. He emphasised that those documents were related to the nation's security. He further emphasised that the BJP should be defeated in the Lok Sabha polls to ensure social justice and equality in the country.