External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made a big charge on Monday involving former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru over the Katchatheeevu island row. Inferring from Nehru's views on the island, the Union minister said that for the former Prime Minister, the Katchatheevu islands had no importance and saw it as a "nuisance".
Reading out Nehru's opinion, Jaishankar said, " I attach no importance at all to this little island and I would have no hesitation in giving up our claim to it. I do not like matter pending like this indefinitely and being raised again and again in Parliament."
Drawing conclusion from the quote, the BJP leader said, "To Pandit Nehru this was a little island, it had no importance, he saw it as a nuisance. For him the sooner you give it away, the better..."
Jaishankar claimed that the view was not limited to Nehru but continued on to Indira Gandhi as well. He also read out former Tamil Nadu MP G Viswanathan's statement regarding Indira Gandhi's views on the island: "'We are worried about Diego Garcia, thousands of miles away from the Indian territory, but we are not worried about this small island. The PM (Indira Gandhi) is said to have remarked in the AICC meeting that this is a little rock."
The Union minister said that the "dismissive attitude" was not just of one PM but "was the historic Congress attitude towards Katchatheevu..."
He also trained guns on Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham over the row saying the two parties approached the issue as though they bear no responsibility.
"Two parties, the Congress and the DMK, have approached this matter as though they have no responsibility for it," he said, adding, "As though the situation is for today's central government to resolve, there is no history to this, this has just happened, they are the people who are taking up the cause; that is the way they would like to project it..."