Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Monday declared in the Assembly that she would certainly succeed in her efforts to retrieve Katchatheevu, and wished the DMK members to stay well to see it happen.
Ms. Jayalalithaa, who has filed a case in the Supreme Court against the ceding of the island to Sri Lanaka, alleged that the DMK was singularly responsible for the present situation.
Responding to a query from DMK member K. Ponmudi as to why the Chief Minister could not retrieve the island even though she pledged to get it back while hoisting the national flag on Independence Day in 1991, Ms. Jayalalithaa said she had approached the apex court after exhausting all other options.
When Leader of the Opposition M.K. Stalin pointed out that the AIADMK was the only party that failed to sign the resolution adopted at an all-party meeting against the Union government's decision to hand over the island, she said the DMK government could have approached the court as there was a precedent.
Ms. Jayalalithaa said the Supreme Court, in 1960, stopped the Union government from conceding Berubari in West Bengal to Bangladesh on the ground that any part of the country could be given to another country only after placing a constitutional amendment in both Houses of Parliament.
“Immediately after the all-party meeting in 1974, media persons brought to the notice of then Chief Minister Karunanidhi the decision of Jan Sangh leader A.B. Vajpayee to approach the Supreme Court against conceding Katchatheevu. But Mr. Karunanidhi refused to make any comments,” she noted.
Ms Jayalalithaa said the DMK was a part of the both the BJP-led NDA government and the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre and never made use of its position to get back Katchatheevu.
“At least the DMK government in 2008 could have impleaded itself in the petition filed by me in the Supreme Court,” she said.
